The Accidental Vessel
by Alatar Maia
Summary: Gabriel might have made a mistake when he borrowed pagan weapons to make the fake blade, but he'd thought it would be enough to trick Lucifer. Well, it was, but now the archangel find himself set adrift on another Earth. With little power and stuck in Harry Potter's body, what can Gabriel do? Well, maybe Hogwarts will be enough to distract him. T for swearing.
1. Prologue

Gabriel wasn't sure where - or even _when _- he was.

What he was sure of was that it had been an absolutely _horrible _idea to listen to Dean Winchester.

Because, really, going up against Lucifer? That had been stupid, even if Gabriel had used a fake angel blade - which turned out to be the luckiest decision he'd made all night, since it was the only thing that had kept him from being actually killed.

Even so, something was very wrong.

Gabriel sighed and glared down at the town he was standing over. He was perched on top of an old oak tree nearly as tall as him, which didn't make sense because his true form was larger than the planet Jupiter and most definitely nowhere near the size of a _tree._

Gabriel blamed it on the fake blade he'd been stabbed with.

Sure, he'd made it out of some questionable substances, but it had needed to be powerful enough to trick Lucifer. And it wasn't like any of the pagans had been using their weapons - _Mercury _certainly wasn't going to put that staff to use, and Balder had lost his sword enough times that it wouldn't have mattered either way whether he'd lived or not.

But maybe he should have been a bit more careful about, oh, not getting stabbed with it.

Who knew what the consequences might be.

Gabriel glanced back down at the Earth absentmindedly - and was this even the same one he'd been on earlier? His Father had created so damn many of the things, you couldn't swing a cat without hitting one of them. Mostly, Gabriel had kept to the first Earth, since it was the first one he landed on after skipping out of Heaven and interplanetary travel - or was it technically trans-universal? - would have drawn the exact kind of attention he was trying to avoid.

But first things first. Gabriel needed to find - and probably salvage - his vessel. After that, he'd worry about the fallout from what happened at the Elysian. After all, he wouldn't be able to do much if he didn't even have a body.

His wings, however, didn't seem to be working properly, and when Gabriel tried to fly away all he managed to do was unbalance himself and nearly topple over a few feet to the right of where he'd previously been.

"Ah, fuck!"

Gabriel attempted to regain his bearings and found himself directly outside a house that he was sure hadn't been there a moment ago.

Huh.

There was a figure in a black cloak sweeping up the sidewalk, and even though Gabriel had noticed the Halloween decorations littering the other houses nearby he didn't think the figure was there for trick-or-treating. The man's soul also made him frown, because there was quite a lot less of it than there should have been, except it was impossible to break a soul.

Gabriel seemed to have landed himself in the middle of some sort of crisis.

The man did something to the door which made it swing open - possibly he'd just turned the knob - and the other two souls inside the house flared with panic, one quickly moving to the second floor. There was also a third soul, which was rather young, and had been carried upstairs with the second, distinctly female one.

There were shouts coming from the entryway, and as green light flashed from inside the door once of the souls inside flared and faded. Gabriel glanced towards where it had been sharply, then up at where he could sense the other two.

It was easier to fly up to the roof than it had been for him earlier, and Gabriel landed on it at the exact moment that Missing-Half-His-Soul burst into the same room as the two that were left.

There was another shout, another flash of green light, and the second adult soul vanished.

Gabriel frowned, but before he could attempt anything, the roof exploded.

Gabriel winced at the unpleasant feeling of rubble going straight through him, instead of being deflected like it would have had he been at full power. Peering into the giant, gaping hole the explosion had created, he saw that directly under it was a crib which held a black-haired baby whose soul was guttering on the verge of going out.

There wasn't a single trace of the man who had gone in there earlier, unless the pile of black cloth on the floor was all that was left of him.

Gabriel observed all of this in a moment and only realized that something was off when he tried to lean away and found that he couldn't.

There was some sort of force acting on him, dragging him closer to the room [or more specifically, the nearly-dead baby] and Gabriel spotted the faint light of a runic circle under the rug which the crib stood on.

_Fuck._

Even worse, Gabriel thought he recognized some of them.

Gabriel seized the roof but it didn't do anything to stop him being dragged closer. That circle was meant to protect whoever lay in it, and either whatever had happened in there had messed it up, or it just mistook Gabriel's reduced Grace for the baby's soul. Either way, Gabriel was most definitely not planning on going anywhere near possessing a _child._

"I _can't!_ I don't have permission! I'll be trapped!" If the rune array managed to override the natural laws of angelic possession, that was. Shouting didn't seem to do much good, so Gabriel switched to his Grace to try and change the spell, but even that failed.

_Fuck magic, _Gabriel swore, barely hanging onto the roof and his form growing smaller and smaller as if in preparation to possess the baby. _Fuck magic and witches and anything to do with them! _

Being trapped in the body of an infant was not on Gabriel's list of priorities, but it was becoming more and more obvious that he didn't have a choice in the matter.

His hands - or rather, the equivalent of them that he had in his true form - slipped off the roof.

The resulting explosion, not of fire or spellwork but of light, lit up the surrounding Muggle neighborhood for miles.

In the ruins of the house, everything was silent.


	2. Letters and Relatives

**I've decided to continue this story after all. It interests me and I have absolutely no idea where I want to go with this.**

**So it's sort of ad-libbed, but then again most of my stories are. I'll assume that if you liked the prologue you'll probably like this too.**

**Some swearing, mostly mental.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter.**

* * *

Harry Potter was a strange little boy; everyone on Privet Drive knew _that._

They had all heard about how he'd been left on the Dursley's front steps when he was a baby, though everyone disagreed as to whose child he really was. Mrs. Number Seven said that he was the son of some man her father had met, rich and influential, who trusted the Dursleys to look after his son. Most disagreed, and the other neighbors all said some variant of how Harry was just the son of a distant relative who for whatever reason couldn't take care of him.

After all, why take in the boy if he's not a relative?

All of the children on Privet Drive [the few that there were, other than Dudley] avoided Harry, for the simple reason of his cousin. By the age of four Dudley was bigger than any of them, and he didn't have any friends yet - therefore, Harry was also not allowed to have any friends, because if Dudley couldn't have it then neither could his cousin.

And none of them wanted to mess with Dudley Dursley.

* * *

Gabriel was quite aware of how horrible his vessel's life was.

On occasion, he was grateful that the child had been spared the horrible treatment, then quickly remembered that he was stuck in said child's body, and his resentment returned in a rush.

It hadn't been _his _choice to possess the boy but noooo, that damned ritual had taken over and he'd been forced into the body nonetheless. An angel was the exact opposite of a demon; they were physically incapable of possessing a body without permission. The ritual, and Gabriel's semi-powerless state had helped bypass it, but whatever the ritual had done had slipped the shreds of Harry Potter's soul into his Grace. Which meant that, for the time being, Gabriel was trapped.

In a _four year old's body._

Harry Potter might have been there as well, if not for two factors. One, his soul was in pieces. That wasn't something anyone ever recovered from. Two, Gabriel was an archangel.

It happened with all their vessels. An archangel was huge, their true form contained by only the right vessels. No matter how strong a human was, there simply wasn't room for them.

Even in Gabriel's reduced state, it took Harry Potter's soul only a month to be worn away by the stronger and more powerful being residing in the body.

As a result, he was seen as the odd boy out in most cases. Gabriel had struggled with his vessel for the better part of a year - it was immensely frustrating to be in a body that barely knew how to control its legs and arms, much less speak. And the way adults treated him - ugh. Gabriel swore that if he ever got out of this mess he was going back to Heaven and never taking another vessel like this again.

Occasionally he wondered what Harry Potter's life would have been like, had he not intervened. After the incident where he was locked in 'his' cupboard [the Dursleys apparently didn't think him worthy of having an actual bedroom] and the last shreds of Harry's soul were worn away by stress and the lack of any food or water, Gabriel concluded that the boy would have starved to death in the first week or so, and at least this way death had been less painful.

Gabriel spent most of his time trying to figure out who Harry's parents had been. Obviously the mother had been related to the people he'd been forced to stay with - the similarities between her and the woman who was Harry's cousin's mother was obvious, even with the little he had glimpsed of the dead woman's face. The man must have been where Harry got the majority of his appearance, because Gabriel was sure that such black, messy hair did not come from _this _disgraceful side of the family.

He wasn't sure where the father had come from, though. Something magical had gone on in that house - damn that fucking ritual to hell, but it gave him a necessary clue - and Gabriel had absolutely no idea what.

He had never been too concerned with the Earths outside of the one he took shelter on. The majority of the angels concentrated on that one, since it was the first Earth their father had created. Interplanetary travel would have drawn more attention than he'd have liked, and Gabriel had been doing perfectly well under his disguises.

[At least, until the Winchesters showed up.]

Concerning the magical side of things, Gabriel had a lot of questions. Why were there unbelievably crappy wards surrounding the house Harry's relatives lived in? Why was he important enough to need wards? _Why _had no one bothered to take the time to check on Harry? And most importantly, _what _was preventing him from gaining his power back? Gabriel had been at his lowest in terms of angelic power ever since Halloween 1981. Something was preventing him from recharging as fast as he needed to. A fraction of his power had been restored in four years - at least so far - and he should have long ago been at full battery. Was the ward meant to prevent that? Or did it have some other reason? His limited resources made Gabriel unable to tell, and the overall helplessness of his situation sent him into the occasional monumental sulk. He was going to get his power back, and find the magical community, and get some serious answers.

* * *

The Dursleys, it seemed, were desperate to make sure that Dudley was better than 'Harry' at everything.

When Gabriel had been forced to attend school along with Harry's cousin [he was sure that they were only sending him because there were laws against him staying home] he had returned to their house halfway through the year with grades that were at least three letters above Dudley's. There had been a lot of yelling from Harry's uncle, Dudley had thrown a tantrum, and Gabriel amid it all had barely escaped to his new bedroom.

He'd only gotten out of the cupboard after pushing Harry's aunt to give him Dudley's second bedroom with a little bit of Grace. Dudley had thrown a fit after that, too, now that Gabriel thought about it, even though all he ever did with it was store broken toys or things that he didn't want anymore.

Anyway. School.

Gabriel had quickly learned that if he brought home better grades, it resulted in a miserable time no matter how much Grace he could use on the humans. If he had been Harry, it would probably have led to a lifetime of underachievement. As it was, Gabriel simply didn't pay attention in class and what answers he didn't already know, he purposely got wrong. It wasn't as if he needed good grades for when this body grew up, after all.

In some cases, Gabriel counted himself lucky he wasn't at full power. At least this way, his vessel could still grow and get older. If he got too old, he'd have recharged enough to reverse it a bit by then.

The Dursleys of course knew nothing of angels or their nephew's possession, and simply decided that 'Harry' had stopped using dirty tricks to get better grades than their darling son.

It honestly made Gabriel sick.

* * *

As Harry got older, Gabriel learned more and more about how humans worked.

Specifically, they seemed to have retained their pack instinct from their time as neanderthals.

Dudley had gained a group of friends as soon as he was old enough, who spent most of their time intimidating younger kids. Their favorite target was Gabriel, who they assumed to be helpless, and Gabriel had entertained himself once for three hours as they looked for him in vain while he watched, invisible.

On the rare occasion that they did catch him, no one ever managed to actually hit him. This only made the group of children that much more determined, and on a particularly spirited chase where Gabriel had been run into a dead end behind the school, he had somehow found himself on the roof.

Dudley had told his father right away and Gabriel had spent the weekend locked in his bedroom, most of which he'd spent trying to figure out whether he'd flown or used some sort of magical transportation. It had felt much more uncomfortable than flying did, but then again as he was running on maybe an eightieth of his actual power, that could be easily explained.

The next time something strange happened, it was definitely not by use of his angel powers.

The teacher had been ribbing into him for not turning in the homework, and Gabriel had been distracted from some fairly heavy thoughts. Frustrated at losing his train of thought, he had glared at the teacher and then stared in shock as the man's hair abruptly dyed itself blue.

Another week trapped in his room was given for that. Gabriel spent it poking and prodding the little ball of what must have been magic that was steadily growing next to his Grace. It had attached itself to the already-present power, no doubt inherited from what remained of Harry Potter. Gabriel taught himself how to create a string of witch lights to decorate his room and then tried to conjure something, which exhausted the core so badly it was weeks before he could see it again.

* * *

A week before Harry's eleventh birthday was Dudley's, and as usual the event was completely over-celebrated. Gabriel sat at the table, not even sparing a glance at the plate in front of him. If the adults in the house ever noticed that he barely ever ate, they didn't comment on it, but Gabriel had a feeling it was connected to the reason he hadn't been forced to do any chores around the house.

There was a pile of brightly wrapped presents at the end of the table, cascading onto the floor and swamping half of the living room. Another one fell onto the floor as the thundering footsteps of the ridiculously obese Dudley Dursley sounded, the boy slamming over the door and casting piggy little eyes over the scene.

"How many are there?" He asked loudly, focusing on the presents.

"Thirty-six," the uncle told him proudly. Gabriel wasn't sure what his name was, he'd never bothered to learn it.

"Thirty-six?" Gabriel rolled his eyes as Dudley's face reddened. "But last year, last year I had thirty-seven!"

"Yes well some of them are quite a bit bigger than last year-"

"I don't care how big they are!"

"Diddykins," the aunt came over, Gabriel was mildly sure that her name was some sort of flower. "Don't worry, sweetheart, we'll go out later and buy you two new presents. How's that sound?"

"So I'll have thirty...thirty..."

"Thirty-eight," said Gabriel, attracting the human's attention all at once. They seemed to have forgotten that he was there.

"Mind your own business, boy," the uncle blustered, turning back away from Gabriel as the doorbell rang. "Who's that?"

'That' turned out to be P-something, one of Dudley's gang friends. Not literally a gang, but that was what they called themselves. Gabriel thought of them as about as terrifying as a load of ants.

"Where are we going today, Dud?" the boy asked, joining the club of pretend-the-other-kid-isn't-there.

"The zoo," Dudley said, glancing up at the aunt, who nodded.

"What about him?" asked the uncle, jerking his head in Gabriel's direction.

"I've told you, Vernon," Oh, so that was his name. Gabriel promptly forgot it. "Mrs. Figg said she can't take him. He'll have to come with."

Gabriel sat bolt upright. Mrs. Figg was an old woman who liked her cats too much and who the Dursleys left him with every time they went somewhere. She once gave him cake that Gabriel was sure would have tasted dusty and stale, if he'd bothered to eat it.

"What?" Dudley howled, an the only thing preventing a full-on tantrum was the presence of his friend.

Several minutes later, Gabriel found himself in a car for the first time.

He hated it.

It was confining and slow, the seat belt dug into his neck, and even though he was sitting alone in the very back seat Dudley and P-whatever kept reaching back from the middle row of seats to hit his head.

The zoo itself was also horrible. Gabriel knew that the animals were there only because there was no other place for them, but when you'd been around when Earth was basically just a giant forest, seeing all these predatory animals behind bars was more than a little odd. He lost the Dursleys five seconds after they got through the entrance and had toured half the zoo before a security guard noticed that he was alone and the Dursleys were paged over the intercom.

The uncle had been steaming mad, and Gabriel half hoped that the guard would send Child Protective Services after the Dursleys.

It didn't happen.

The snake room was Gabriel's favorite, mainly because it was the only shady place in the entire zoo and therefore much cooler than anywhere else. He found a corner and sat down in it, enjoying the breeze that occasionally drifted by.

The only problem with this place was that it was right in between three different cages. Gabriel wasn't sure why the snakes in this world had a language, but it was very annoying to try and rest with them constantly going back and forth about who had gotten the better dinner. Animals, honestly.

Gabriel eventually poked his head up and hissed back at them, mildly surprised when the words came out as actual hisses.

"_Do you mind? I'm trying to get some rest here and you're being a bit loud."_

_"A speaker?"_ One of them had said in surprise, but Gabriel just sat back down and ignored any questions they asked him. The zoo was much less interesting than Dudley had made it out to be. He wondered what the humans got out of this experience.

* * *

Gabriel's vessel's birthday came a few days later. He spent the day mostly in his room, avoiding the Dursleys, who were still upset that he had gotten away from them at the zoo.

The sky outside was barely dark yet, since it was summer and the sun didn't set until late in the evening, so the owl came as a surprise.

Gabriel stared at the thing perched outside his window for a moment. It pecked at the glass and was this owl actually irritated at him? Gabriel was fairly sure that owls were never meant to be this sentient. Cautiously, he opened the window.

The thing flew in and perched on his desk, right next to where he was sitting. Gabriel hesitantly reached out and poked it, making it flap its wings angrily. Well. At least now he was sure he hadn't been slipped some hallucinatory drug.

There was an envelope tied to the leg the bird was forcefully sticking out at him, and Gabriel grabbed it, using a miniscule amount of Grace to untie it without really thinking. The owl didn't leave, even after its message had obviously been delivered.

"Aren't you supposed to go now?"

It gave him a severe look and started grooming itself. "I'm pretty sure that owls aren't supposed to act like this."

It continued ignoring him. Gabriel turned back to the letter and examined the paper. It had his vessel's name on it, with his room [and wasn't that a creepy thought] and the Dursley's address. Gabriel ripped it open, taking a moment to examine the seal. What was this, the Middle Ages? No one used parchment anymore.

The letter was also addressed to his vessel.

_Dear Mr. H. Potter,_

_We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment._

_Term begins 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July._

_Sincerely,_

_Minerva McGonagall_

_Deputy Headmistress_

"What the hell?"

* * *

**Reviews make me happy! Please let me know what you think.**


	3. A Visit and Boredom

**I hope you guys are ready for chapter three! I had an enlightening conversation with a reviewer, who thought not entirely polite with their suggestions made several good points. The future of the fic is a little wibbly, so if you have any ideas feel free to PM or review to let me know.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter**

* * *

In a small room in a house on a small Muggle street, anyone looking in would have been thoroughly confused by what was going on.

Gabriel was pacing the room, talking animatedly to himself while the owl watched. He was questioning, thinking out loud, making up and discarding ideas as quickly as they came.

"But why now?" Gabriel asked, spinning back towards the desk where the letter lay. "Why contact me now, after years of no interference? Why do they want me at their school?"

He snatched up the letter again, rereading the heading. "Albus Pericval Wul...how many names does this guy have?" He scanned over it. "Does he have a title for each of them? Who decided it would be a good idea to let one guy have all this power?"

The owl hooted. Gabriel looked at it, having momentarily forgotten that it was there. "What?"

It nodded its head towards the letter. Stifling his curiosity over why the owls here were so smart, Gabriel looked back at the parchment. "What? I've read it."

The owl hooted in annoyance and Gabriel wasn't even going to think about how it was possibly conveying emotions. It hopped to the side of the desk and turned away.

Was it...sulking?

Gabriel decided to continue ignoring the animal.

He turned the letter over, rereading the pathetically short acceptance letter, and added another question to his list: why was the letter here? He'd never applied to any magic school, and if they came without applying, why was there only one? Gabriel eyed the signature, and wondered if he would be able to write back with all his questions.

It took half an hour to find a pencil that was decent to write with and another twenty minutes for Gabriel to find a clean sheet of paper. He wrote down all his questions in a row and, as an afterthought, addressed it at the top to said Deputy Headmistress. He rolled it up, and put the name on the outside.

The owl had already stuck its leg out, since apparently the whole point of it staying had been to take a reply. Gabriel haphazardly tied it on and the owl was on its way out the window. Gabriel watched it fly away, and thought of one more question.

Where, exactly, was this school?

* * *

The doorbell rang in the middle of breakfast again.

"Who could that be?" Muttered the uncle, letting his newspaper fall slightly. "Go get the door, boy."

Gabriel stayed exactly where he was.

"I said get the door."

"You didn't say please." Gabriel watched with interest as the uncle's face turned a furious red. Was it natural to do that, or was he the exception?

"I'll get it," said the aunt quickly, trying to avoid another shouting session. Her shoes tapped against the floor as she went down the hallway from the dining room to the door.

Her shriek startled all of them.

Gabriel stared at the door, wondering what could make his aunt scream like that, while the uncle and Dudley both tried to jump to their feet, upsetting the table badly. It would have fallen over, except it was falling towards Gabriel, who righted it just as the aunt walked stiffly in, followed by a woman in the strangest outfit. She was wearing robes, of all things, and a pointed hat of the same color.

"What are you doing here?" the uncle yelled, before the aunt hurriedly pulled him aside and whispered into his ear. They carried along like this for a minute or so, while the other three occupants of the room became engaged in a sort of staring war with each other.

Whatever the aunt had said, it was enough to take all three Dursleys out of the room while the woman talked with Gabriel.

"I must say," she said. "It is a pleasure to see you again, Mr. Potter."

"Okay?" Gabriel wasn't entirely sure what was going on here. "Let me guess...you got my letter?" If she wasn't the Headmistress he'd written back to Gabriel would just leave.

"Indeed. Is there somewhere we can sit?" Gabriel showed her to the living room, sitting on the sofa while McGonagall took the uncle's favorite chair.

"Now." She fixed him with a look. "I did get your letter, and I was surprised at the amount of questions you had. Did your relatives not inform you about Hogwarts?"

Gabriel had to quickly search through his mind before remembering that Hogwarts was the name of the school. "Um, no. Why would they have?" He sincerely hoped that the Dursley's weren't magical.

McGonagall looked angry about something. "Those..." she muttered something under her breath that Gabriel was delighted to hear from such a stern-looking woman. There was hope for everyone, it seemed.

She took a deep breath. "Mr. Potter. Do you know about the magical world? What happened to your parents?"

"Well, I knew the Dursleys lied about them dying in a car crash." Gabriel could really care less about what had happened to the Potters. "And your letter so kindly informed me about the existence of magic, so yes."

McGonagall seemed to draw herself straight in preparation for something. "I suppose I will have to explain the whole story."

And she did. Honestly, Gabriel might not have cared, but it was an interesting premise. Magical terrorism and genocide? Hm. Sounded like the beginning of a fantasy novel.

McGonagall took his silence as sadness. "Are you alright?"

"Yes." Gabriel shook himself out of his thoughts. "Just thinking. What about everything else I asked about?"

If there was any surprise in his quick dismissal of the story of how his parents died, McGonagall did not pressure him. She answered everything Gabriel could ask about, including Hogwarts. "Your name was put down by your parents shortly after you were born, Mr. Potter." Gabriel supposed he'd have to get used to being called that.

"What if I didn't want to go to Hogwarts?" The question seemed to shock McGonagall.

"Well-" she stopped. "Do you?"

Gabriel considered it. School. He'd been going for the past seven years and he still didn't like it. But magic school? The core he'd discovered inside himself was still untrained, and he couldn't do much with it. "I guess I do." It wasn't like he had many more options. His archangel power was still limited, even though it had grown since that night.

"Excellent." She seemed very relieved. "I have been asked by the Headmaster to take you shopping for supplies today, after I informed him that I would be visiting you." She stood up smoothly, far more agile than her appearance suggested her age to be. "If you would follow me?"

Gabriel had never liked following orders, but this interested him. The magic of this universe was something entirely new to him, separate from ordinary sell-your-soul witchcraft or hoodoo or anything that had existed on the last Earth Gabriel had lived on.

Not that Gabriel enjoyed it. Whatever McGonagall did to take them to the grimy pub, it was much worse than flying and Gabriel felt as if he were being squeezed through a tiny rubber tube. He stumbled as they landed with a _crack _and vowed never to use that mode of transportation again.

* * *

Diagon Alley.

_Diagonally._

Gabriel wasn't sure whether the name was a pun on purpose or not. Either way, it was the most ridiculous name he'd ever heard.

McGonagall walked smartly up the cobbled road [cobblestones? Really?] which doubled back on itself so many times they had to have used magic to fit it all behind the bar.

"Come along, Mr. Potter." McGonagall tugged him towards the huge, white building at the end of the street. Gabriel bit back a retort and settled for pulling his hand away.

The bank was a welcome distraction. Gabriel had never had much to do with the creature races of the various realms he knew of, so goblins were fascinating. The path the cart traveled down underground was just as good, though still not nearly as fast as flying.

The vault wasn't quite as interesting. Gabriel swept a few piles of gold and whatever was stacked in front of it into the bag McGonagall handed over and that was that. Money was nothing to Gabriel; he'd most likely never use it aside from whatever he was forced to buy.

What followed was perhaps the most mind-numbingly boring hours of Gabriel's entire existence. And he'd had to listen to Zachariah's battle speeches.

Robes. No wonder everyone looked like they were wearing dresses, and really? They couldn't manage with just a simple cape. No, full length robes were the only acceptable wear for the wizarding world. Gabriel had half a mind to burn them, dress code be damned.

The blond boy in the robe shop had been constantly talking, assuming that Gabriel was interested enough to hear him. Gabriel pegged him for the son of a rich aristocrat, and decided that the boy would last about three seconds in an actual fight. The kid actually got mad at him for not listening. It might have been cute, if Gabriel were into that kind of thing and not bored out of his mind with the shopping trip as a whole.

The books were alright [Gabriel had been forbidden from buying a book on runes, saying it was too advanced for him, but he slipped it into his bag anyway], but cauldrons? Gabriel almost groaned aloud at the list. A cauldron. Really. Didn't they have spells for those things by now?

The apothecary smelled horrible, and Gabriel discreetly cleared the air around his nose while he was forced to get ingredients. Were these really necessary? Why couldn't they just have the ingredients ready for them at the school? Actually seeing what some of the ingredients were made Gabriel determined to never drink a potion if he could help it.

Buying a wand was the only saving grace of the entire expedition. The shop practically vibrated with energy, and the threshold gave Gabriel a shock as he stepped across. The man was waiting in a corner, presumably Mr. Ollivander.

"Ah," he said, softly and very creepily. "Mr. Potter. I wondered when I'd bee seeing you here." He flicked a hand at Gabriel, sending a tape measure towards him, which started measuring everything. Gabriel yanked it away from his face as soon as the man turned his back to disappear in between the shelves.

"I sold your mother and father their wands when they were your age," Ollivander's voice echoed through the shelves. "Your mother... willow, ten and three quarter inches. Very swishy, good for charms work. Your father..." His voice faded slightly as he got farther away. "Eleven inches, mahogany, excellent for transfiguration. I hear he favored the subject-" Ollivander slipped out of the rows next to McGonagall, who jumped slightly. "Did he not, professor?"

"He did," said McGonagall quietly. "If we could move on to getting one for Mr. Potter?"

"Of course," said Ollivander, moving to the counter and handing Gabriel a polished stick. "Cherry, ten and a half inches, core of unicorn horn...well, give it a wave."

* * *

An hour later, three explosions, several fires which had needed to be doused hastily, a frozen countertop, a broken lamp [or three], an accidental tornado which knocked down a shelf, and what may have classified as a crime against nature, Gabriel had a wand.

It had cost him seventeen Galleons [Gabriel was sure Ollivander had charged extra for damage] and was apparently made with the wood from an evergreen, and a feather from an unknown bird. Gabriel had accepted it warily, catching a series of engraved patterns along the handle that, when you looked from the proper angle, formed a series of nonsense runes. Or at least, that's what Ollivander told him, though the old wandmaker winked at Gabriel as he left the shop.

McGonagall, who looked rather harried and windblown by now, walked him to the Leaky Cauldron. Gabriel convinced her that he could look after himself well enough to get back to Privet Drive on his own, and as soon as the woman disappeared through the fireplace [green flames, that was new. Gabriel made a mental note to look it up] Gabriel went over to the counter and bought a room until September first. There was no way he was staying with the Dursleys any longer than he needed to.

The door had barely closed behind the man who had offered to bring up Gabriel's luggage before Gabriel had whipped out his wand. If this was his father messing around, or one of his siblings trying to be funny, then Gabriel hoped that they knew he was thoroughly pissed off. It was downright cruel, giving him a wand like this when he was trapped in his vessel.

The runes might have been made up by wizards' standards, but it was only too easy for Gabriel to read the Enochian carved on the handle. The word _traveler _had a different connotation in Enochian; it didn't mean someone who travels a lot, but instead someone who is far from home.

The feather was also no coincidence. There had to be someone behind this. Only God or one of Gabriel's brothers could have given him a wand with an _angel's _feather in it; and if he judged right, it was one of Samadiriel's feathers. Gabriel felt a tiny pang. He and the other three archangels had been given what amounted to custody over their younger siblings, and they usually took turns whenever a new one was created. Samadiriel, like Balthazar and Castiel, had been one of his charges.

Gabriel put the wand in the deepest pocket of his new trunk and decided to see if the broomsticks he'd noticed were any good.

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**REVIEW PLEASE**

**Hope you guys liked it!**


	4. Hogwarts

**Wow, I'm really getting these chapters out there! I suppose that means I'm more likely go back and think 'oh god why did I write that' later, but for now it means I am really bored and on a Gabriel kick. I suppose you readers should count yourself lucky I spend so much time writing.**

**This may take a while to get up, since I've just seen Les Mis for the first time and I need a bit to recover before I start the chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter.**

* * *

King's Cross Station rattled and whistled with the sound of a hundred pedestrians going back and forth, tugging bags and other paraphernalia as they went back and forth across the gleaming station. Trains whistling, wheels chugging against the track as gleaming black cars go on their way.

Station one, two three, and there was even station thirteen in a little alcove off to the side, the station itself not nearly as frequented as its more major sisters.

Four, five six, seven, eight, nine.

And then on to ten.

Gabriel squinted at the ticket McGonagall had given him before he'd left. Then back up at the pillar in front of him, a ticket box off to the side. Then back at the ticket.

The number 9 3/4 shone up at him, gold leaf reflecting in the sunlight that the skylights allowed in.

"Forget my _brothers,"_ muttered Gabriel in annoyance. "Wizards will mess with you twice as badly." Where on Earth was platform Nine and Three-Quarters?

And who the hell had decided that three-quarters was a good platform number?

Gabriel tilted his head and regarded the pillar in front of him. "Hah! Three quarters. It's not like it's-" He rested his hand on the brick pillar and nearly tripped over his trunk when his hand passed straight through it.

Gabriel, arms windmilling, righted himself. He looked around. He looked at his hand. Then he looked back at the pillar.

"I'll be damned," he said to himself. "They mean it literally."

The wizarding half was very different from the Muggle side of the station. The white smoke coming out of the steam engine gathered in thick clouds above the crowd, and what a crowd it was. There was a group of students clustered around a boy with dreadlocks holding a big box, who was showing them something inside of it that made a lot of them scream. There was a woman in a hat topped with a stuffed vulture, berating her son for loosing his pet toad. Gabriel didn't blame the boy. If he'd been given a toad, he'd have lost it too, and probably far more quickly.

A group of red-headed people came through the barrier one at a time, their flame-colored hair making them easy to spot even out of the corner of his eye. Gabriel climbed onto the train with his trunk dragging behind him, narrowly avoiding two older girls dressed in robes with blue trim. They stepped aside to let him pass, and Gabriel had the funny feeling they were staring at him as he ducked into the first available compartment.

The train was wider than it really should have been, with hallways and compartments along one side, the glass letting anyone sitting down keep an eye on who passed by in the hallway. Gabriel heaved his trunk onto the luggage rack above the seats, cursing his eleven-year-old body, and say down heavily, flopping across the seat and taking up an entire side.

When the train started it was with a jolt that sent Gabriel tumbling onto the floor from his seat. He got up, glaring at the upholstery as if it had personally offended him. There was a knock on the door, and he saw a ginger-headed boy watching him.

Gabriel got up and unlatched the door. "What."

"I, um, I saw you fall. You alright?"

Gabriel stared for a minute before he fully understood what he was being asked. "Yeah...is there a reason you stopped to ask?"

The redhead blushed lightly and mumbled something about sitting.

"What?"

"I don't have anywhere to sit," he said louder. "I thought this compartment was empty."

Ah. "Can't you go farther up the train?"

Redhead's eyes widened. "You mean switch train cars? You can't do that while it's going!"

Right. Gabriel had forgotten how limited humans were. "I suppose you can sit here," He said grudgingly, stepping aside so the redhead could drag his trunk in.

"Thanks," the boy said gratefully, pushing his trunk up onto the rack. "I'm Ron Weasley by the way."

Gabriel caught himself in time to give Ron the name he'd have to go by for the next couple of years. "Harry Potter."

"You're who?" Ron was staring at him now. "Seriously?" He seemed in awe.

"No," said Gabriel dryly. "I'm only pretending to be him. I'm secretly a child agent of the Red Room, here to infiltrate Hogwarts and sell its secrets to the Soviet government." Comic books were one form of entertainment in the Muggle world, and Gabriel had always liked the Black Widow.

Ron took a moment to realize he was joking. "If you're Harry Potter..." he lowered his voice as he sat down across from Gabriel. "Do you have the scar?"

"I take it you're referring to the mark I was scarred with the night my parents were both brutally murdered." It didn't hurt to play on people's feelings, after all. And Ron was being rather annoying - Gabriel wasn't in the mood for hero worship.

Ron, luckily enough, went scarlet and didn't speak for a while. It was a comfortable silence, neither of them saying anything until the trolley came around.

"Anything from the trolley?" The woman pushing it asked.

Ron muttered something, but Gabriel turned towards the woman pushing it. "What do you have?"

She told him. Gabriel leaped up and bought a king's ransom of candy. He hadn't had any in _years._

Ron's eyes were wide when Gabriel tipped it all onto the seat, and he cast disgruntled looks down at the plastic-wrapped sandwiches in his hands. Gabriel flipped one of the gold and blue packages at him, and it hit Ron in the forehead.

"Ow!" he rubbed the spot. "What was that for?"

"Do you want it or not?" Gabriel gestured towards the box lying on the floor. Ron glanced between him and it.

"Seriously?"

"I'm not going to eat all of this myself, you know." Well, he probably could, but Gabriel was never sure when it came to humans. Better safe than sorry.

"Thanks!" The package was snatched up quickly. Gabriel stared as a small chocolate frog leaped out of the box, but Ron caught it with what seemed to be practiced ease and bit into it. He noticed Gabriel looking. "What?"

"...I didn't think the name was literal."

"Oh." Ron seemed to instantly understand. "Well, if that's the case, you probably shouldn't eat the Bertie Bott's..."

"What, why?" Gabriel glanced down at the striped box on the seat next to him.

"Well, they mean every flavor, don't they?"

* * *

The door to the compartment slid open again just as Ron was daring Gabriel to eat a bean that looked suspiciously bogey-flavored. Gabriel didn't really taste them, and so had developed an impressive record for 'not gagging' when it came to Bertie Botts.

A girl with uncontrollable brown hair stood in the doorway, already dressed in the uniform, sans colors as was required of first years. Once she'd taken in the scene, she seemed regretful that she had opened the door. "Oh. Well. I see you're busy."

"Something the matter?" Gabriel glanced towards her, letting the bean fall back in the box.

"I was talking to a boy named Neville," she said, sniffing. "He's lost a toad. Have you seen it?"

"Nope."

"No."

"Pity." She lingered at the door. "What are you eating?"

"Bertie Botts," Gabriel explained, offering her the box. "Bet you wouldn't eat this pepper one."

"That's not pepper," objected Ron.

"Well, what is it then?"

The girl was reading the back of the box, where the flavors were listed, with an expression of revulsion. "This can't be serious! Earwax flavor?"

"Course they're serious," said Ron, baffled. "What fun would it be eating them if you only got good flavors?"

She handed the box back to Gabriel. "Well, anyway, let me know if you see a toad."

"You're leaving?" Gabriel placed a hand on his chest in mock injury. "I thought we were friends."

The girl looked at him strangely, one had on the door. "Huh?"

"You've been standing there for ages, might as well come in and try one of these." Gabriel waggled the box invitingly. "Seriously, bet you wouldn't try a pepper one."

"It's not-"

"Shut up Ron."

The girl hesitated, then drew the door shut and cleared a space next to Gabriel to sit. "I'm Hermione Granger," she said.

"I'm Ron," Ron offered through a mouthful of fudge. He'd helped himself to the rest of Gabriel's stash.

"Pleasure," Hermione said dryly, then turned to Gabriel expectantly.

"My name is Erik Lenscherr," Gabriel said with a completely straight face. Hermione would probably have bought it, if Ron hadn't snorted and nearly fallen over laughing.

Hermione turned pink. "That's not funny," she said shrilly.

"Alright, alright," Gabriel waved a hand vaguely. "I'm Harry Potter. You've caught me."

"Really?" Oh no. Here they went again. "I've heard of you, you know. I've read all about you. You're in _Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts _and _Modern Magical History..._" she trailed off, going slightly pink.

"It seems you know me better than I do," said Gabriel grandly. "Would you happen to know my favorite color? I forgot it."

This time, it was both of them who laughed.

* * *

Hogwarts castle was an imposing sight. It blended in with the background, the lights in the windows creating little pinpricks of light against a background speckled in stars. That only served to show how far they had gone - nowhere near a human city would you see this many stars in the sky. The train station was dark and chilly, and as Gabriel tugged at the robe he'd ended up wearing anyway he could hear a man in the background bellowing for "Firs' years! Firs' tears this way!"

"Where are we going?" whispered Ron as they walked. "The carriages are that way, I saw everyone else going up."

Gabriel shrugged, catching Hermione as she stumbled one one of the steps.

"Thanks," Hermione said. "These steps aren't very even."

"I've noticed."

The steps led around a corner and down to a small quay, where a fleet of boats waited in the dark water. The huge man who had led them there took the one in front, shouting "No more'n four to a boat!"

"They can't be serious," said Hermione. "Taking boats up to the school?" She stood nervously on the dock as Ron got in one, Gabriel following.

"Come on," Gabriel offered his hand. "You can sit down and slide in, if you're nervous." Hermione squeezed her eyes shut and took his hand, sliding in and stiffening when the boat rocked.

The little fleet set off across the water, cutting silently through it. Gabriel thought they were luck to have good weather, and then thought that even if it had been raining they still would have made the first-years go across the lake. It was impressive how the boats sailed on their own, though.

The first sight of Hogwarts sent up a collective 'ooh!' from the children in the boats. Gabriel gazed up at it silently, taking in the turrets and the many windows.

"Duck!" shouted the man in front as they approached what looked like an ivy-covered wall, and Gabriel resisted the urge to shout 'where?'. His head barely missed the wall, and Gabriel crouched slightly as they drew into another small quay.

It was trickier getting out of the boats, and several people nearly fell in, but eventually the first-years were grouped behind the man and letting him lead them up towards the castle.

He knocked three times, booming against the huge double doors of the school.

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**That's it for now. Read and review, please!**


	5. Sorting and A Riddle

**And now we finally come to Hogwarts! I'm trying to do the story justice, while also not keeping it entirely canon, so again let me know if you guys have any suggestions for the story!**

**I'm trying to convey how Gabriel feels about all this, mainly being stuck as a kid again, but he also acts a little childish from time to time, because in the show I think some of what he did was just for fun and no other reason.**

**Anyway, onto the chapter! This may take a while to upload since I'm in the middle of doing a separate piece or writing camp, as well as summer homework.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter.**

* * *

McGonagall had opened the doors when the man brought them up, ushering the first-years up several flights of stairs to an open hall that was barred on the other side with another set of double doors. The sound of chatter and a gleam of candlelight could be heard and seen, and while McGonagall gave her speech Gabriel looked around and admired how the wards were set into the castle stone. It took some talent to create wards like that - he'd done it himself, but ony once, and that house had been destroyed anyway. Whoever had done them would have needed to raise them as the castle was being built, which wasn't a task for the weak.

McGonagall finished her speech and left, the doors opening briefly to show a hall already packed with students. The first-years were left on their own on the hall, already divided into small groups from their time on the train. There was a pale blond boy who was accompanied by two others who looked more like bodyguards than friends, and a small knot of girls all talking excitedly. Ron and Hermione were both shuffling awkwardly, neither knowing what to say, and Gabriel wasn't paying attention.

Someone screamed, and everyone's heads snapped around to see what had happened. A couple first years scrambled away, and Gabriel immediately saw what had happened, and snapped a tight hold over his Grace.

There were ghosts streaming through the walls, silvery and partially see-through. They floated above the crowd of first-years, talking among themselves.

"I say we give him a chance!" A man in friar's robes insisted, conversing with a man in a ruffled collar and Elizabethan-style clothes.

"My dear Friar, haven't we given Peeves all the chances he deserves?"

"He may be a - I say! What are you doing here?" The ghosts had noticed the group in the hall below and had come to a stop, hovering over their heads. No one answered.

"New students!" The friar's ghost said cheerfully. "About to be Sorted, I suppose?" A few people dared to nod, but the doors creaking open again directed everyone's attention once again. McGonagall reappeared in the hall, glancing up at the ghosts as she passed under them.

"If you would all form a line?" The group of eleven-year-olds took several minutes to accomplish such a simple task, jostling and pushing to be in front. McGonagall waited patiently while the sorted themselves, and then led the column of first-years into the hall.

Candles twinkled as they floated, magically suspended underneath the ceiling. The roof opened up to a view of the starry sky outside, and Hermione leaned forward to hiss something in Gabriel and Ron's ears. "It's not really an open ceiling," she told them, "it's just enchanted to look like it. I read it in Hogwarts, a History."

Ron rolled his eyes. Gabriel elbowed him in the ribs, still tense from keeping his power hidden. The ghosts followed as well, silvery forms gaining greater transparency as they floated among the candles. Gabriel took time to wonder why they weren't in color, like all the other ghosts he'd ever seen.

There were four tables packed with students in the hall, and there was an aisle between two of them which the first-years walked along to reach the steps which led up to fifth and final table. What must have been teachers were seated along it, all in robes of varying and bright colors. Seated in the center, on an elaborate gold thronelike chair, was a man who out of everyone in the hall looked most like the stereotypical wizard. With a pointed hat and a long beard which vanished under the table, he seemed to have cultivated the 'old, friendly grandfather' look.

A stool sat at the head of the four tables, on which McGonagall placed an old, tattered hat.

"That thing looks like it's going to give us lice if we wear it," muttered Gabriel. Hermione, who overheard him, looked torn between agreeing and shushing him.

A rip on the brim of the hat opened wide. Gabriel watched in mounting disbelief as it began to _sing. _Singing hats. This was what his life had come to.

The end of the song was greeted by applause from the student body, while most of the first-years' opinions seemed to agree with Gabriel's; raised eyebrows and _are you serious _looks directed at one another, mostly between those from Muggle backgrounds.

"When I call your name," McGonagall announced from her position next to the stool after the clapping died down. "You will come up and place the hat on your head. It will then Sort you into one of the four houses."

"So we've just got to try on a hat!" Ron, standing next to Gabriel, relaxed noticeably. "I'll kill Fred, he was going on about wrestling a troll."

"Who's Fred?" Whoever he was, he sounded like the kind of person Gabriel would like to know.

"He's my brother," Ron explained somewhat moodily as "Abbot, Hannah" was called up to the front. "I've got five, and they're all older than me." Gabriel could certainly sympathize with that. "Everyone expects me to do as well as they've done, but when I do it it won't be that big of a deal since they've done it first." The hat yelled out HUFFLEPUFF, but Gabriel wasn't paying attention.

Hermione looked troubled; she of course could hear everything they were saying. "I'm sure you'll do alright," she told Ron, trying to be reassuring.

"Sure," said Ron, looking unconvinced.

Students were called up to be Sorted in a constant stream. Gabriel took the time to look around. On the walls were colored banners, most likely one for each House. There was a red one with a gold lion, next to a blue one with a bronze bird in midflight. On the other wall was a green banner featuring a silver snake, and on the side closest to the staff table hung a yellow banner on which was sewn a black badger.

"Longbottom, Neville!" Gabriel winced as that name was called. The kid would probably spend his whole time here being teased relentlessly for his unfortunate last name. He was sorted into Gryffindor, but accidentally ran off to his table with the Hat still on his head.

"Malfoy, Draco" went to Slytherin before the Hat even touched his head. Gabriel smirked to himself, wondering if anyone here had bothered to learn the meaning of _that _name.

The list dwindled down from the Ms, and eventually they came to the last few letters. "Potter, Harry!"

The hall went entirely silent as the name was called. Whispers broke out as Gabriel made his way to the front, grinning at McGonagall. She seemed unimpressed, and waited for him to sit down before dropping the hat on his head.

Gabriel waited in the abrupt darkness that followed [the hat was wide enough to drop over his face, and wasn't that embarrassing] when a voice whispered into his ear.

**_Well, well, well. I haven't seen something like this in a while._**

Gabriel jerked in surprise. _What the hell?_

_**No no**,_ the hat said, since who else could it be? **_I'll need to see into your head to sort you properly._**

_No way!  
_

**_Don't be difficult about it._**

_I'm not being difficult! You couldn't handle what goes on in here.  
_

**_Oh?_**

Just to spite the hat, Gabriel pushed a wad of memories at it, some of his oldest ones.

The hat was silent for a long time. Then...

**_I see._**

_That's all you're going to say?_

**_I have met one of your kind before. Don't be so surprised -_** The hat could clearly see his emotions - _**How else do you think the Founders got those wards there?**__  
_

_Oh, so it wasn't them. I was wondering how they'd been built into the stone.  
_

The hat conveyed an affirmative. **_In any case, I know the exact place for you to go. The best House for you would be-_**

_Hold on! You're not about to say Slytherin, are you?  
_

**_What, you don't agree?_**

_Of course I do. I know myself better than you do. But no one trusts the Slytherins.  
_

**_I see your point._**The Hat was silent for a few moments, and Gabriel knew the teachers in the hall must have been wondering what was taking so long. **_Ah, I know! I'll put you in-_**

"RAVENCLAW!"

The table to Gabriel's immediate left began cheering wildly. Hermione, from what Gabriel could see of her at the Gryffindor table, looked disappointed. Gabriel handed the hat back to McGonagall and made his way to the Ravenclaw table, where he was quickly pulled into a seat with the other first years. The lining on his robes had turned itself a dark blue, matching that of the people sitting around him, and the tie had changed to match. Gabriel watched as the House crest stitched itself onto the cloth over the left side of his chest.

The students were all looking at him curiously, but Gabriel was still looking up at the hat. He watched to see where Ron would go, and when the redhead went to Gryffindor with the rest of his brothers - there was no way that shade of red was anything but hereditary - Gabriel grinned at him and gave him a thumbs up.

As the hall quieted down, the Headmaster raised his glass and smiled. "There is time for speech-making, but it is not now. Tuck in!"

Food appeared on the dishes on the table - turkey and chicken, all sorts of proper dinner food. There were even salads, and here and there on the table a dish of mint humbugs. Gabriel took a handful of them and then put some food on his plate so as not to attract unwelcome attention.

"So you're really Harry Potter?" There were people all over the table leaning closer to talk to him, and Gabriel was sure that someone had switched seats to get closer.

"Yes," said Gabriel, popping a humbug in his mouth.

"And have you really got-"

"If one more person asks me about the scar I got the night my parents were murdered I'm going to leave the hall." Shock rippled across the faces of those who heard him, and those who weren't put off by that were pulled back by more tactful students.

"Welcome to Ravenclaw," one older student offered, shaking Gabriel's hand. "I'm sure you'll do well here."

"Thanks," Gabriel said. "I'm hoping it's as interesting as I think it's going to be."

"Trust me," the student laughed. "There's no shortage of 'interesting' in Ravenclaw."

* * *

The dormitory was high in a tower on one side of the school. The door was painted blue with a bronze knocker - eagle, Gabriel realizeed once he took a closer look. As the two 'prefects' who led the first-years there near, the knocker opened its eyes and its beak cracked open as well.

Something came out that stopped the two prefects and Gabriel in their tracks. The harsh syllables are obviously nonsense to the prefects, who are wondering aloud to each other in quiet voices if someone has cursed the knocker, but Gabriel stops because _who _the _hell_ programmed the knocker to speak Enochian.

Gabriel has run into enough signs to know that his brothers have definitely been here before, but even though his wand says otherwise he doubts that it was Samandiriel. The seraph was too nervous to have done something like this.

While the prefects were discussing the odd riddle, Gabriel looked straight at the eagle knocker and made a subtle slashing motion across his throat.

"Where do Vanished objects go?" The prefects turned back to the door at the new question. The boy cast the girl a glance, but she just shrugged and answered.

Gabriel made sure to linger in the back. As he passed the door, he whispered the answer to the first riddle, the Enochian slipping past his lips despite the limitations of the human voicebox. The knocker's eyes gleamed, and it spat a roll of paper out at Gabriel, who caught it before anyone realized what had happened. He stuffed it into a pocket in his robes, lengthening his stride to catch up with the group that was now splitting into two different lines, one boy lingering nervously.

"Catch up, Harry," said the male prefect, not unkindly. "What is it, Michael?"

The boy shifted uncomfortably. "You said, um, to go to either the girl's or boy's dorm. Um...what if we don't really feel like either?"

Gabriel paused in his path up the stairs. He listened for the prefect's response. What he heard surprised him. "That's quite alright, Michael." The prefect reassured him. "There's a third dorm on a path that splits off from the boy's...it used to be a prefect's dorm, but we've repurposed it for people who aren't one or the other, like you. You can use that one, alright? I'll ask Professor Flitwick to send up a house-elf later and get it ready, but do you think you could spend tonight in the boy's dorm?" There was a pause. Michael must have nodded, because the prefect continued. "Great. I'll show you where it is later, you don't have to remember."

Gabriel heard footsteps, and quickly walked up the stairs so that it didn't look like he had been eavesdropping. When Michael caught up with him, Gabriel didn't say anything, though the boy must have known that he'd heard the beginning of the conversation.

Gender was a very tricky thing, and far be it for Gabriel to put someone down over it when his true form was best described, as Castiel had once put it, as a multidimensional wavelength of celestial intent. Or, to put it more simply, a load of sentient supercharged light. His train of thought trailed off so that as they entered the dorm, Gabriel was musing over the few female vessels he'd taken and trying to remember what it had been like. He distinctly remembered smiting someone for not showing proper respect.

"Oi, Potter!" Someone threw a pillow at his head. "Are you listening?" His dorm mates seemed to have relaxed about Gabriel's celebrity status, at least. "I said your bed's over there," said the boy who had thrown the pillow, pointing to one by a window at the end of the row. There were five four-poster beds, draped in blue with bronze trim. Gabriel wondered if all the dorms were on such a strict color scheme.

"Alright then." He saw his trunk at the end of the specified bed, and threw it open, discarding his robes. He dropped the thrown pillow on the bed, not bothering to prop it up with the others.

"Toss my pillow back, would you?"

"It's mine now."

There was some indignant spluttering. "No it's not!"

"You threw it at me, and didn't make an attempt to get it back." Gabriel pointed out. The boy who had thrown it, Terrence something, came over and grabbed it off the bed.

"It's mine," he said unnecessarily, and went back over to his bed. Gabriel reminded himself that he was dealing with children, and not people who were capable of holding an actual debate over even the silliest things.

The bed was quite nice, really. The curtains provided a good changing screen from the other boys [plus one neutral kid]. Gabriel kept them drawn tight as he laid down. He waited until everyone else was asleep [which took _ages. _They were eleven, for Dad's sake, shouldn't someone have come around to make sure they were going to bed on time?] before bringing up a small string of witch lights, which he attached to the bedframe before bringing out the tiny slip of paper the knocker had given him. No time like the present to figure these things out.

* * *

**Read and review, please! Let me know what you think!**


	6. A Puzzle and Lessons

**Another chapter! The beginning of this one took a while to write, mainly because working a code into things like that takes a while to figure out, and I had to rewrite it several times so it made sense both ways. **

**Anyway, I hope you enjoy Gabriel's first day! I have a feeling Snape isn't going to be too pleased with this development...although this version of Harry is considerably closer to his expectations.**

**I apologize if it gets confusing, since I call Gabriel, Gabriel, but everyone else calls him Harry.**

**Also, in regards to Michael the gender-neutral character: I'm going to refer to Michael as 'ne/nir/nis' in place of 'he/him/his' mostly because that's the best gender neutral pronoun I could find. If anyone has a better suggestion, let me know through review or a PM! I'm open to suggestions. I was kind a surprised no one commented on him in the reviews.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter.**

* * *

The scroll unrolled to reveal several sheets of parchment rolled together, and as Gabriel pulled them apart they enlarged until a normal-size stack of sheets sat on his bed. Curious, Gabriel reached for the top one, picking it up and seeing the marks in Enochian carefully penned with a quill.

Containing his surprise, Gabriel realized that whatever was written here was a nonsense code which required proof of his identity before it would unscramble. Hesitantly, and knowing that the ghosts would immediately recognize who it came from, he loosened his grip on his Grace and let a little of it leak through his hand and onto the page. It was too early to be throwing it around like this, especially as he was still slowly gaining it back.

The symbols rearranged themselves, flitting back and forth on the page until they had created something understandable. A breath Gabriel released over the paper caused them to glow, a trick used by angels ever since a need for code had been created. Leaning over the paper, he began to read, the paper lighting itself enough to allow him to read it in the dark.

* * *

_The knocker who no doubt gave this to you has been enchanted to leave this knowledge only to my kin. I leave this note as proof of my presence here at Hogwarts. I have taken a female vessel, one of the four who wishes to create a haven for those killed in misguided faith to my Father._

_Every one of these humans has talent, and I confess I was furious until I learned that they made no deals for their skill, but were born with it. My vessel has eagerly accepted my presence, on account of the knowledge I have promised to leave for future generations of this Fae-born race. I might fear for their advancement, if such trends as I have observed among the students persist in years to come. I admit to knowing little of the future, but I fear what may be simply because of arrogance and perceived superiority. The Mundane students who come here are fearful of even themselves, their parents having taught them that all magic is the devil's work. While the majority of the time on the first Earth this was indeed the cause, I have seen little of demons here. Perhaps Hell does not reach quite this far. Of my fellow founding wizards and witches, only Salazar Slytherin understands this as well as I do. He has been withdrawn, and of late bitter, ever since the attack came onto his family home by the Mundanes which had previously lived under their protection. I do not think I have leave to remark upon his condition, however._

_Lately the Mundanes have become more bold, so my vessel's memories show me. In their hurry to please my Father and gain entrance into Paradise, they write away the rights of their fellows for the simple fact that they are different. Do they not understand that my Father's decree was to love? They seem to arbitrarily pick and choose who is worthy of the Lord without ever picking up the Lord's work._

_Yesterday was the day I chose to leave this note behind, and now I am full of doubt. What if one not worthy of this seeks it and reads this note? I beseech whoever you may be, use this not for selfish gain but return the prize within to our siblings, and forgive me for taking it after its use was complete._

_Each of us played our part, and yet I could not bear it. If it is you who has found this, then when you find the treasure know that I am sorry for what I did; stealing it was unfair to you, as I know how much you treasured it._

_The key is in the letter I leave to you here, and if you are unable to decipher what clue I leave you then consider it a warning to stay away from what is in upper years' work and not yours._

_Please let no one see this besides your eyes._

_2 places in Hogwarts are mine alone, the dorms I created for my students being the other one of them._

_Left behind as my legacy is this school and my vessel's status as a reputable sorceress. I hope this will not go to waste._

_Each student is to be treasured._

_Fear no evil as long as you linger in the halls, for the school in protected against every creature currently known to these men._

_The other Founders halls are their own secrets, and unless you are decreed worthy of their House leave those secrets be until the right one comes along._

_3 years' work has gone into this. Keep this secret with your life, if it does come to that. Our Father bless you, and I hope you are the right one._

_Muriel_

* * *

Gabriel leaned back onto his pillows as he finished. An angel as one of the Founders...so Muriel had been here before, and the evidence of his wand said that Samandiriel had as well. How many of his brothers and sisters had traveled here?

Gabriel wrenched his attention back to the note. Muriel had obviously expected to be discovered, if the note was anything to go by, though not for several years. She had taken one of the Founders as a vessel, and left behind some sort of legacy and a treasure for whichever came after her.

A thought gave Gabriel pause. What if Samandiriel had discovered the same things he had? It would have been easy for the younger angel to replace the letter, and there might not be a treasure to retrieve anymore.

Gabriel cast that aside. Even if there was nothing to find, this would provide a welcome distraction from classes. A key was worked into this somewhere, and not even his low power could deter him from figuring it out.

* * *

Gabriel was down in the common room already when his dorm mates arrived. He had seen someone who must have been Professor Flitwick arrive, as Gabriel had seen the short man at the staff table the other night. The Professor simply nodded to him in greeting, going up the staircase to the dorms. Gabriel assumed he was here for Michael.

How odd, Gabriel realized, that someone named Michael would be neither one nor the other, not unlike Gabriel's brother of the same name. He shrugged and returned to the book he was skimming over; he had come down early in the morning to try and find out more about the Founders. There had been four, and the Houses were apparently their namesake, but after hearing some of the wizard last names Gabriel found that a little less ridiculous. Ravenclaw had been a woman, and reportedly used feats of magic which she credited to an unknown source she had discovered in her search for knowledge. Gabriel glanced up at the statue of a woman that he had noticed last night in the common room.

It was most likely of Rowena Ravenclaw, and whoever had carved it had made her standing tall, a wand held by one side. She was wearing a strange sort of circlet, with embellishments showing where the jewels would be. Gabriel snorted at the artist's license and went back to the book.

The only Founder's chamber it mentioned was the legend of the Chamber of Secrets, with no mention of the other Founders building one. Gabriel was combing the pages for something he might have missed when his classmates stumbled down, seeming surprised to find him already there.

"What are you doing?" Asked one of them. Gabriel didn't look up from the book.

"I would think it was obvious." He closed it in frustration, resisting the urge to throw the volume at someone.

"Ravenclaw's meant for the smart, but I don't think we're supposed to take it literally." said another boy, glancing around at the shelves which filled the common room. The room was open and airy, being in a tower and all, with gold constellations painted on the ceiling. There were plenty of spaces to sit and do work, and a circle of comfortable chairs and couches surrounded a small grate which was currently empty of anything save a few logs. Gabriel stood up, making a show of stretching like someone would after sitting down for a while.

"Well," he said, "I'm going down to the Great Hall. How long do we have until classes start, half an hour?" He grinned at his classmates panic at finding they had so little time left, and as he closed the door behind him he twisted his hand slightly, disabling the spell he'd set up and returning time to its normal speed.

He may not have had a lot of Grace to waste, but what was the harm in some small pranks?

Older students had already partially filled the hall by the time Gabriel arrived, having taken nearly twenty minutes to find his way back downstairs. He took a seat at Ravenclaw table, and someone immediately passed a stack of parchment to him. Gabriel was about to shove it back at the girl before he realized that it was their schedules for the year. He located his and pushed the stack onto the table in front of the empty seat next to him.

Transfiguration took up the first two periods, then straight to lunch. Potions after lunch, then History of Magic, and right before dinner was Herbology. Astronomy was, apparently, on Tuesday at midnight. The schedule went on to detail the rest of the week, but Gabriel folded it up and stuck it in his pocket for now. His bag had been enchanted by a woman he'd met in Diagon Alley the day after McGonagall had left, and so every one of his textbooks was carried around in it and the bag still felt like it was empty. Gabriel had taken care to remember the words and the little flick of her wand she'd given, and made a note to practice the spell first chance he got.

His classmates piled into the hall several minutes after Gabriel got there, stuffing their faces and hurriedly exchanging schedules. Gabriel went on his way early to Transfiguration. Not that he intended to be early, of course, but he needed time to explore the castle. Ravenclaw challenge aside, who knew what he might find?

* * *

He was ten minutes late to class.

In Gabriel's defense, he really didn't know that the fourth-floor corridor didn't reach a staircase until it was at the other side of the castle.

He opened the door mid-lecture, receiving a stern look from Professor McGonagall.

"Sorry," he said, entirely unapologetic. "I got lost."

"Sit down, Mr. Potter." said McGonagall dryly. "In the future, I expect you to be on time to your classes. Understood?" Gabriel nodded as he sat down in the only empty chair.

McGonagall continued with her lecture, and Gabriel looked right at her the whole time while wondering if the raven in the corner was going to be their demonstration. He leaned forward when she turned the desk into a pig, impressed with her concentration. Unfortunately, she turned it back into a desk before he could tell whether the pig was alive or not.

"You won't get to things like this quite yet," McGonagall told the class, to their disappointment. "For now, you'll start off small...Mr. Goldstein, please pass these around." Goldstein came around with a box full of matchsticks, handing them out.

"Your first task," said McGonagall when everyone had a match in front of them, "Is to change this match into a needle." She demonstrated the spell for them, moving her wand slowly and deliberately. "You may begin."

Gabriel brought out his wand, staring at the match thoughtfully. He could have done it in a heartbeat with his Grace, or his Pagan power if he had any, but magic was new. If he wanted to learn how to do it properly, he wouldn't be able to cheat. Sighing internally, Gabriel reached for the core he'd found all those years ago.

Magic turned out to me much more finicky than anything he'd used before. It kept trying to twist its way along different paths in Gabriel's body, and when he finally got it into his hand it was difficult to get it to channel through the wand. He finally succeeded, though, performing the movement and watching the little stream of power wind through his arm and escape the wand tip. His match grew very silver, but it still looked like a match.

Gabriel scowled at the offending metal matchstick, and set himself to the task again with even more determination.

* * *

In the end, Gabriel's match stayed a match, and he steamed about it all through Potions. It was only the hasty intervention of his Hufflepuff partner that stopped him adding the wrong ingredient...several times in a row. Gabriel had a feeling that he wouldn't be partnering with them anytime soon.

Potions had the potential to be interesting, or at least Gabriel thought it did, but the Professor really ruined it. When he came to Gabriel's human name while calling attendance, he put the register down and stared at Gabriel.

"Ah yes," Snape said softly. Gabriel frowned. "Harry Potter. Our new...celebrity."

Oh boy. Someone giggled in the back of the classroom, and Gabriel resisted the urge to turn around and glare at them.

Snape finished calling names and put the register down. He began to pace the front of the classroom, robes sweeping dramatically around his feet.

"You are here," he said softly, yet the students could hear every word - none of them dared talk over him. "To learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making. As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses...I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death - if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."

Gabriel raised his eyebrows. He'd been almost impressed, but the last sentence had caused his opinion of the man to plummet abruptly.

"Potter!" Snape turned suddenly to Gabriel. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

Gabriel stared at the man, wondering if he'd just had nonsense words shouted at him. _Powdered what to an infusion of what?_

"No answer?" Snape's lips curled into a smirk, and Gabriel realized that he'd purposely asked a question he knew Gabriel couldn't answer. His opinion of him again descended, falling somewhere into the realm of disdain. "Let's try again," the Professor continued, unaware of Gabriel's thoughts. "Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"

"Probably in the cabinets over there." Gabriel gestured with his head, nodding towards the half-open cabinets on the other side of the room. Snape's face tightened.

"Five points from Ravenclaw for talking back," he snapped. "One last time, Potter. What is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?"

"Probably their names."

"Another five points from Ravenclaw." Snape turned away and spoke to the class at large. "Powdered root of asphodel in an infusion of wormwood creates a sleeping draft so potent it is known as the Draught of Living Death. A bezoar is found in the stomach of a goat, and monkshood and wolfsbane are the same plant. Well? Why aren't you writing this down?"

There was a sudden scramble for parchment and quill pens. Snape watched them write furiously, flicking his wand at the board. Instructions began to write themselves on it, chalk appearing on the black surface.

"When you are ready," he called over the scratching noise of quills, "Get your ingredients ready and begin making the potion. The instructions are on the board."

Gabriel stared, his mouth nearly dropping open. All that blabber about the subtle sciences and whatnot - and he just expected them to make a potion perfectly with only instructions? No warning on what might happen, or explanation as to why it happened or why ingredients couldn't mix?

Gabriel had seen Muggle chemistry classes with better instructions.

He had never been more relieved to leave a class. Gabriel made another mental note to ask someone why the Potions Professor hated him.

* * *

_Flying lessons?_

Gabriel stared at the notice on the board, the crowd of first years around him to excited to notice his expression. He didn't need flying lessons! He'd been flying since before this school had existed! What in Heaven and Earth did they even offer flying lessons for?

The row of broomsticks that greeted the mixed Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff class when they came out did nothing to improve Gabriel's mood. He glared at the one at his feet as the students lined up into two rows, instinctively putting Hufflepuffs one one side and Ravenclaws on the other.

The teacher, Madam Hooch, was a hawk-eyed woman with a very short haircut. She stared at all of them severely as she talked about broom safety, and Gabriel got the feeling that if anyone did anything wrong she'd be on them in seconds.

"I'm not going to have any more accidents like the Gryffindor in the last lesson," Hooch lectured. "So be careful, and _do not _take off until I have said so. Now, stick your hand over your broom and say 'up'."

"Up!" was shouted collectively. Gabriel mutinously stuck his hand over the blasted stick and muttered "Up."

It didn't move at all.

"Get into my hand you damn stick." The broom fairly leapt into Gabriel's hand at that, smacking into his palm and startling him enough to make him stumble backwards. The Hufflepuff standing across from him sniggered, and Gabriel gave him a glare for good measure as Hooch started talking again. She went up and down the line, having people mount their brooms and correcting their grip. When she came to Gabriel, she gave him a hard look.

"Mr. Potter, you're going to need to loosen your grip a little bit, otherwise you'll never get proper control."

_I can control my flight, _Gabriel thought to himself as the teacher moved on, but let go slightly.

"On my whistle...three...two...one..." A shrill blast punctured the air, and the entire class took off as one. Gabriel pushed off, soaring up and managing to level off about ten feet of the ground when Hooch shouted at them to not go too high.

It wasn't as bad as he'd expected, Gabriel mused, but the unfamiliar feeling of a bit of wood supporting him was uncomfortable, especially as the class went on. Hooch was on her own broom, and directed them in several basic maneuvers before letting them fly freely.

"This is awesome!" shouted Michael as ne swooped past Gabriel. Gabriel smiled slightly, Michael's enthusiasm infectious.

"Hey!" There was a shout from one side. Someone, a student in yellow robes, was drifting higher and higher, obviously not in control of their broom. Hooch went to go see about the problem, steering herself closer to the girl.

Someone screamed about three seconds later. Gabriel looked up to see the girl sliding off her broom, which had jerked violently under her. She was falling straight for him. He barely had time to brace himself and reach out, an instinctual reflex, before she hit him. Gabriel seized her around the chest, his broom falling as the weight of two people bore down on it. The broom spiraled dizzyingly towards the ground, and Gabriel spread his wings to try and slow them down before he could remember what a bad idea that was.

Gabriel bit down on his lip as pain sparked across his back, his injured wings stretching painfully. They wouldn't be fully healed until he got his full Grace back, and so right now they were a mess, stripped of feathers and basically useless. Gabriel hunched over as they hit the ground hard, sending him and the girl he'd caught rolling across the lawn. Gabriel let go of her and tried to alleviate the soreness in his back, and hitting the ground had done that no favors.

"Mr. Potter! Ms. Bones!" Hooch had landed and was running towards them, the rest of the class touching down behind her. Hooch checked over 'Bones' quickly, before moving over to Gabriel.

"Your lip is bleeding," she muttered, and Gabriel realized he was still biting down on it. He opened his mouth and winced as some of the blood spilled onto his tongue. Hooch healed it with a word, and behind her Bones was sitting up with an awed look on her face.

"You'll both be fine," Hooch announced. "Thirty points to Ravenclaw for saving a classmate from a potentially very dangerous fall, Mr. Potter. Can you stand?"

"I think I'll stay on the ground for now," muttered Gabriel, the pain in his back fading to muscle cramps.

Hooch nodded and turned to Bones, pulling her to her feet and checking her over more thoroughly. "Both of you should see Madam Pomfrey, just in case," she decided, casting a worried glance at Gabriel, who remained sprawled where he'd landed. "Mr. Corner!" she called. Michael winced, but came over. "Do you know where the hospital wing is?"

Michael nodded. "I think so."

Hooch told nir the directions, and Michael screwed up nir face as ne tried to remember them.

"Take your classmates up to Madam Pomfrey," said Hooch. "Mr. Potter, you'll need to get up." Gabriel groaned, but hauled himself into a sitting position. He carefully got to his feet, batting away Michael's offered hand.

Michael led them through hallways, nir face the picture of concentration. Michael seemed relieved when the doors of the hospital wing came into sight, and Madam Pomfrey came bustling out.

"What's happened now?" She asked the three of them, eyes skimming over the dirt-stained robes two of them possessed. Michael hurried to explain, summarizing the events neatly.

"Twice in one day," Madam Pomfrey sighed. "Come over here, then, and I'll see what I can find." She sat Gabriel and Bones on two different beds, and Gabriel then discovered that Bones' first name was Susan as Madam Pomfrey clucked over her.

"You'll just be a bit sore," the healer told Susan. "I'd avoid classes next week, until you think you're ready to fly again. Don't let anyone pressure you into getting back on a broom until you're ready, alright?" Susan nodded. "Good. Now, I think you should stay here until your nerves have recovered a it, but otherwise you seem fine. Which doesn't bode well for you, Mr. Potter."

She turned to face Gabriel. "Now, let me see..." she flicked her wand at him, and Gabriel felt a weird, tingly cold wash through his body. Madam Pomfrey seemed to be upset with the results. "It seems you've landed rather heavily on your back and side," she muttered. "No doubt why Miss Bones has very minor bruising. I'll get some bruise balm and be back in a second." Madam Pomfrey bustled off, leaving the three students awkwardly sitting around each other.

"Thanks," blurted Susan, flushing red. "I-I mean, if you hadn't caught me, I'd probably..." she trailed off.

"You were falling right on top of me," replied Gabriel. "It was sort of a spur of the moment thing. But you're welcome."

Susan blushed even harder and looked away. Luckily, Madam Pomfrey took only a few minutes to return with a small tub of some whitish-yellow cream.

"You'll need to take off your shirt," she told Gabriel, who looked out of the corner at his eye at Susan, wondering how she'd react if she had blushed that hard only talking to him. Madam Pomfrey caught the look, and Gabriel could have sworn that she had rolled her eyes before she pulled a set of curtains shut around the bed Gabriel sat on. "Now, please."

Gabriel took off the layers he was wearing, the school sweater, tie, and shirt sliding over his head. Madam Pomfrey had him turn around so she could easily reach his back, where what was sure to be an impressive bruise was faint along his side - or rather, it might have developed into one had it not already done do and begun healing as they walked to the hospital wing.

"That's quite a birth mark, Mr Potter," said Madam Pomfrey as Gabriel put his shirt back on. Gabriel glanced down to see what she was referring to, and saw a whitish mark the size of a quarter at the base of his ribcage.

"Mhm," he agreed, trying to disguise how his mind was rushing. How had he not noticed this before? Well, it wasn't like he got naked a whole lot, but still, something like that wasn't easy to miss!

Gabriel thought about it as he walked back to the dorm with Michael [there was no point in returning to the flying field] and suddenly got a chill as he realized what it was. Fingers absentmindedly traced the mark as Gabriel recalled the event that had trapped him in Harry Potter's body in the first place.

It wasn't a birthmark.

It was a scar.

Gabriel was sure that, had Madam Pomfrey been paying attention, she would have found a smaller, identical mark exactly opposite the first on the small of his back. He had no explanation for how it had suddenly appeared there, and no idea why he hadn't noticed it before now.

"You alright?" Michael was giving Gabriel an anxious look, fiddling with nir hands anxiously.

"I'm fine," said Gabriel idly, pretending to be fascinated with the pictures on the wall. Now there was another question added to the first challenge he'd found - where did the scar come from? Or if it had been there the whole time, why hadn't he noticed it?

* * *

Gabriel flipped through his books during lunch, trying to figure out Potions further. It wasn't like Snape was going to teach them anything useful. Gabriel was about to turn the page in the ingredients section, when something caught his eye. It was the entry for asphodel.

Gabriel read the entry with growing astonishment, then flipped through to find what was written under wormwood. He didn't understand at first, but then the two entries combined in his head and Gabriel let out a soft 'oh' of surprise.

He closed the book and laid it carefully on the table, and wondered how Snape knew Lily Potter, and why he'd felt the need to speak in code to someone who, for all intents and appearances, was eleven years old.

* * *

**I'm gonna end it there.**

**For those of you wondering, the Snape thing refers to the symbolic meanings of asphodel ['my regrets follow you to the grave', also means a type of Lily] and wormwood [absence, bitter sorrow] which when combined could mean 'I bitterly regret Lily's death. IT's taken as fanon that that's what Snape meant when he asked all those questions.**

**Read and review, please! You got a super long chapter this time!**


	7. The Dog and A Mystery

**I hope you all enjoyed the last chapter! I figure Gabriel wouldn't like brooms too much, having spent at least three millennia flying under his own power.**

**Anyway, did any of you figure out the code already? It might take Gabriel a while to do so, but it's because of a little technicality...if any one thinks they have it figured out, PM me [NOT a review - we don't want other people to have it easy] and let me know! If you're right, you get a clue about what's in the room. If you're wrong, keep trying!  
**

**Anyway. Susan and Michael may factor in later. I'm planning to keep Hermione as one of Gabriel's friends, but I'm not super sure about Ron. He'll definitely come in later, but if they do become friends it will be when he's a little older.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter.**

* * *

Something was very, very wrong with the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.

Aside from his obvious qualities and the class itself, of course. Quirrel was a man who could barely say his own name without stuttering, much less give a lecture on the dangers of vampires. These wizards even thought they were killed with a stake to the heart, for Dad's sake.

He wore a turban that was always leaking this strange smell, and never answered any questions about it. There were several ridiculous rumors about why he wore it so often, but Gabriel thought it had something to do with whatever mauled, bastardized shred of soul was hidden under it.

Even more unfortunately, Gabriel thought he knew exactly what it was - or rather, who.

He had only seen a scrap like that twice before - once, Halloweeen 1981, in the man who'd been vaporized in the explosion. The second time, it was when he'd realized that the scrap from before had attached itself to him. The thing was sneaky - even Gabriel had only realized it was there when it was finally gone, with the rest of Harry Potter's soul.

He kept eyes on Quirrel at all times - a little spy camera was nothing to conjure up, and this was an affordable expense of Grace. The man didn't seem to behave suspiciously, until Gabriel's alert went off during History of Magic. He left the room, faking illness, and as soon as he found an alcove he ducked in and watched through the camera at what was happening.

The soul shard seemed to be alert, as Quirrel was having an actual conversation with it. Gabriel listened carefully, intending to get as much as he could out of it. So Quirrel was here on the shard's orders, or rather Voldemort's orders - Gabriel had been told the story and he could put two and two together. Voldemort wanted something that was hidden here, but Quirrel was apparently having a bit of a hard time getting it. He had put one of its protections in place, like all of the staff had...and Snape was suspicious of him. That was a surprise - Gabriel didn't know that the Potions master could be suspicious of anyone, outside of accusing Gryffindors of cheating.

But what did Voldemort want that was hidden in Hogwarts? He couldn't have known about Ravenclaw's treasure. How many artifacts were hidden in Hogwarts, anyway?

* * *

Hermione sat down next to Gabriel at lunch on Tuesday. He paused in his thoughts, glancing over at her.

"Hi," she said unnecessarily.

"Hi." Gabriel returned to the plate of food he'd served himself to keep people from thinking he was starving himself. "Is there a reason you decided to join me?"

"I thought-" Hermione faltered a little. "You said on the train...we're friends, right?"

Gabriel glanced at her, knowing she couldn't have had many friends growing up. "Sure," he said. Hermione beamed.

"I heard about what you did during flying class," she said, making herself comfortable at the Ravenclaw table. The boy sitting next to her shifted sideways to make room. "That was really brave."

Gabriel made a noncommittal noise. "I don't really like flying." A blatant lie. He didn't like broomsticks, was the problem.

"Really?" Hermione sounded vastly relieved. "I don't either, but everyone makes such a big deal out of it! It's like football."

"Sports everywhere are generally a big deal," Gabriel agreed. "It's the one point where the magical world isn't any more ridiculous than the regular one."

"What do you mean, ridiculous?"

Gabriel raised an eyebrow. "Look around you, Hermione." he said, gesturing. "We're in a room lit by torches because in thousands of years, not a single wizard has bothered to install electricity."

"It doesn't work around magic," Hermione replied quickly.

"Then why do wizards have those little radios?" Gabriel challenged. "I've seen at least half the people in Ravenclaw crowded around it, listening to Quidditch matches."

Hermione frowned. Gabriel continued on. "And even if it did, you're saying that no one's bothered to try and figure out how to make it work?" He thought he saw one of the Ravenclaws near him turn to listen. "And if you think about it," he said, "We're banned from using magic in the halls, but there's no rule against fighting, because everyone assumes that you use magic in a fight. The mundane equivalent doesn't occur to anyone."

He saw Hermione's eyes widen in realization. "It's because they hate muggles, isn't it?" she asked. "And they don't offer English or Math, either, and no language classes or geography!"

"Exactly," Gabriel pointed at Hermione. "They expect everyone who comes here to stay in the magical world, and have no way of getting muggle transcripts."

Hermione met his gaze. "Why start pointing all of this out?" she asked. "Were you planning to do something about it?"

Gabriel smirked.

* * *

Gabriel frowned as he realized someone was following him.

He turned around to see a Slytherin boy, one he recognized from the Sorting. "Is there a reason you're stalking me?" Gabriel asked.

The boy seemed put off by his attitude, but didn't comment on it. "My name's Draco Malfoy," he said. "I noticed you were hanging out with that girl at lunch the other day, the Muggleborn."

"That's a little rude," Gabriel commented, but Malfoy ignored him.

"I thought you might want some help," he continued, "Learning how to properly move about the magical world and all that. You need to know not to associate with the wrong sort. I could help, if you like." He stuck out his hand.

Gabriel didn't take it. "I associate with those I like," he said coolly. "Come back and try again when you've stopped mimicking your dad and started thinking for yourself." He turned and kept walking, leaving Malfoy shocked in the middle of the hallway.

* * *

"Fuck," said Gabriel loudly as he realized he had no idea where he was. He'd been trying to look cool and disdainful as he was walking away from Malfoy and had wandered into a completely unfamiliar part of the castle.

"Now what," he grumbled to himself. "Should I keep walking? I might get even more lost. This place is a Dad-damn maze..." he trailed of as he heard something coming from behind the door in front of him.

Was someone crying?

Hesitantly, he walked forward and opened the door. He heard someone gasp as the door creaked. It opened on a large bathroom, stalls lined up against one wall and one firmly shut.

"Hello?"

"Harry?" Someone asked incredulously.

"Hermione, why are you crying in the bathroom?"

"Why are you even in here?" Gabriel heard her sniffle. "This is the girl's loo!"

"I don't care what gender you are. Why are you crying?"

"That's not what I meant!" Hermione's voice came through much clearer now that Gabriel was standing in front of the stall she had locked herself in.

"I'm not leaving until you answer." Later, Gabriel would wonder why he had insisted on knowing.

Hermione was quiet for several moments. Then, "Ron Weasley was mean to me."

Gabriel would have rolled his eyes if he had been talking to anyone other than an eleven-year-old girl. "Okay, what did he say?" Ron Weasley, heading for semi painful retribution: check.

"He didn't say it to my face." Gabriel could practically hear her tearing up. "But we were partners for Charms today and I thought since he seemed alright on the train it would go well but he got mad when I did the spell before him and I was just trying to help and then he said-"

"Alright, alright, I think I get it." Gabriel leaned his back against the wooden door. "So what? Who cares what he thinks? He's a kid."

"So are we," Hermione pointed out. Gabriel glanced down at himself.

"True," he admitted. He was, at least physically, only eleven. "But that doesn't mean whatever he said was true."

"You don't even know what he said." Hermione sounded reproachful.

"Doesn't matter," Gabriel responded immediately. He hurried to stand up as the lock on the bathroom stall clicked open. Hermione opened it a crack and peered out at him.

"You really think so?"

"If you're smart enough to do the spell on the first try, then, yeah."

Hermione hugged him suddenly, and Gabriel's arms were pinned to his sides in her tight grip. He stumbled backwards, nearly sending both of them into an inconvenient puddle, and Hermione quickly let go.

"Sorry," she said.

"It's fine, as long as you don't lock yourself back in that stall." That made a smile tug at Hermione's lips, and Gabriel grinned back. "Since neither of us is going to be on time for class now," he said grandly, ignoring Hermione's look of horror as she realized she'd skipped class, "I propose that we explore the school." He tugged Hermione along by the wrist, ignoring her protests that they should go to class.

"Live a little," Gabriel said cheerfully. "How much free time are we going to get? You can make up homework."

Hermione glanced around every corner as they walked, as if she expected a teacher to pop out of the walls and demand to know what they were doing.

"Stop!" she hissed as Gabriel attempted to open a door. "We can't go in there!"

Gabriel glanced from her back to the door and affirmed that no, there was no sign forbidding anyone to enter. "Why not?"

"This is the third floor," Hermione said, as if that explained everything.

Gabriel stared at her blankly.

"It's forbidden," Hermione explained exasperatedly. "Dumbledore said so, at the beginning of the year. Weren't you paying attention?"

"Not really," said Gabriel swinging the door open. "Besides," he added at Hermione's openmouthed expression. "If they really wanted us to stay out, why leave the door open?"

"We'll be in trouble," Hermione hissed, following Gabriel in to convince him of what a bad idea it was. "We'll be expelled for _sure."_

"Uh huh." Gabriel continued down the hallway, Hermione jumping as the torches on the wall flared up. The fire illuminated another door at the end of the dusty hall.

Gabriel rattled the door as he reached it. "It's locked," he announced, undeterred. "Know any good spells?" he asked Hermione.

"I'm not going to help you break the rules!"

"Oh, here we go." Gabriel found the actual mechanism for the door and released it, the lock disengaging with a metallic click. Gabriel swung the door open.

Behind him, Hermione squeaked.

Gabriel slammed the door shut just as the dog on the other side jumped. Hermione shouted something and a spell arced off her wand and hit the door, resulting in a loud thump as the beast hit it. She took off running, and Gabriel sprinted after her to catch up as barking echoed after them.

Hermione slid to the floor as soon as they left the corridor, and Gabriel closed the door behind him.

"What was that?" she shrieked. "That should not be in a school!"

"No," Gabriel agreed, sitting next to her. "So I suppose we have a dilemma on our hands."

"What?" Hermione turned to him, distracted from the shock.

"Well," Gabriel said. "If we're banned from going in there, obviously the staff knows that dog is there. So what do they want a giant Cerberus for?"

He could practically see the cogs whirling in Hermione's mind. The clock tower tolled in the distance, marking the time. Students began to flood the corridors, all heading downstairs for dinner.

"Harry," Hermione said slowly. "What if it's guarding something?"

* * *

_"How do you figure?"_

_"I thought I saw something under it... it was standing on top of a trapdoor, maybe. And there are plenty of old artifacts it could be guarding, maybe something from the Founders. Hogwarts, A History says that each of the Founders had a special item - Gryffindor's sword, Ravenclaw's diadem."  
_

* * *

Gabriel stared up at the statue in the Ravenclaw common room. He hadn't gone to dinner, but instead straight to the tower, a possibility lingering in his head. Hermione had mentioned 'Ravenclaw's diadem'. Could that be the treasure the note referred to?

"You don't look like a heavenly weapon," Gabriel muttered. The common room was deserted, so he could say whatever he wanted. And now that he looked closer, there was a tiny etched epitaph on the carved diadem.

"Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure." Muriel had always valued knowledge more than the rest of them, though perhaps that was her vessel's fault on this occasion. Gabriel studied the words intently.

"Is it a riddle? A code?" He wondered aloud, beginning to pace back and forth. Several nights of studying the letter had done nothing for him, even though he'd spent years on codework for fun once. This looked to be just as unhelpful.

"Might as well start at the beginning. The dog is guarding something, possibly what I'm looking for. How hard could it be to get past it?" Gabriel decided. "Not now, though. If whoever put it there is smart at all, they'll have been alerted that someone nearly got in. When would be the best time to deal with it?"

Not today. When would he be assured that everyone was in one place, and no teachers were roaming the halls or in their offices?

Tomorrow? Next week? Gabriel cast around for any time there would be a reason for everyone to be in one place, when something struck him.

_Halloween._

Everyone would be celebrating, even the teachers...and if he got caught he could claim he was mourning his parents. That would probably work, unless it was Snape who caught him. Gabriel congratulated himself on a good plan and moved towards the staircases up to the dorms. What had been next on his list? Oh yes. Ron Weasley.

Gabriel settled himself on his bed so it would look like he was asleep, and waited. He amused himself with mental games and trying to figure out what the diadem or the note could mean while his dorm mates came up from dinner, noisy as they prepared for bed. Gabriel listened until he was sure that everyone was asleep, and then for one extra hour to make sure no one would be awake. The clock read midnight when Gabriel allowed himself to slip off.

* * *

Angels didn't sleep. That didn't mean that it was impossible for them to fall asleep.

Sleeping meant only one thing; it allowed them to send mental messages more easily, and so Gabriel took this opportunity to extend his consciousness a little bit. He jerked in his 'sleep' as he ran into something unexpected, something similar to a warm...thing surrounding him while at the same time not being that at all. It felt like it was examining Gabriel, feeling for his intentions, and when it released him Gabriel swore he heard something similar to a laugh.

_Please tell me that the castle is not sentient._

Gabriel sent his...dream self, for lack of a better word, along the mental corridors until he reached a dreaming mind that he managed to recognize as Ron's.

_Excellent._

He was dreaming about a sport played on broomsticks, of all things, and Gabriel saw the distinctive red hair underneath the goalie's helmet. He watched the dream for several moments, and someone must have scored a goal because the imaginary crowd began cheering loudly.

_Now what to do to make it a little darker..._

Gabriel leaned down to pick up a spider on the floor of one of the stands, and smirked.

* * *

Gabriel purposely bumped into Ron the next morning, suppressing a smirk as the boy jumped at the small touch. "What's the matter?" He said aloud, pretending to be confused. Ron relaxed when he saw it was just Gabriel, and shook his head, muttering something about a nightmare.

Gabriel laughed internally as he found a seat at Ravenclaw table. Hermione was waiting for him next to an empty spot, saving the space with a thick book. Gabriel sat on top of it, and then hurriedly got off, as Hermione looked ready to beat him over the head with the textbook in her hands.

"You don't sit on books!" She said indignantly after removing the thick volume from the bench.

"What's that for?" The book was at least four inches thick.

"I got in from the library last night," Hermione's attitude switched from anger to lecture-mode in a heartbeat. "I wanted to look up Cerberuses - and guess what I found." She flipped through the pages, finding a spot somewhere in the middle of the book

"Cerberus," she read aloud, "Guards the entrance of the underworld and prevents dead souls from escaping. It allows them to enter but suffers none to leave, and is also known as a hellhound." She looked at Gabriel expectantly.

Gabriel hadn't known this beforehand. The Greeks hadn't been the nicest, and among the pagans they were generally regarded as the crazy ones. All of that aside, inter-Pantheon meetings didn't occur often, and from his place in the Norse realm Gabriel left the Greeks to themselves. Learning that they thought the dead could have escaped the underworld was a bit of a laugh, though he frowned at the phrase 'underworld'. Didn't everyone have a version of Heaven? No wonder the Greeks were so dysfunctional, if all they had was their Hell.

"Harry?" Hermione snapped her fingers in front of his face, drawing him out of his thoughts. "Hello? Don't you realize what this means?"

"...No?" He did of course, but why not act like he was a child for once.

"It means that the dog had to have been guarding something," Hermione hissed, looking around for anyone who might be eavesdropping. "And I went to the library to look up old newspapers to see if they had any articles on something that would need protecting." She slapped a newspaper clipping down on the table in front of Gabriel.

_Break-in at Gringotts Bank!_

The article went on to detail how a someone had attempted to steal the contents of a vault [which had been luckily emptied earlier that day] and how the Goblins refused to comment.

"Emptied earlier that day...?" Gabriel read aloud. He doubted that the Founders had kept their things at Gringotts. Was this a different artifact, or had someone found the 'treasure' and moved it?

Hermione was practically bouncing. "Something's being hidden in the school for sure! It's got to be very dangerous, or else they wouldn't risk bringing in a Cerberus!"

"The only question is, what is it?" Gabriel said quietly.

* * *

**Yes, I KNOW Hermione was in the bathroom on Halloween. However, for the purposes of the story, I've been fiddling with things a little bit, and I needed Gabriel available on Halloween to go check out 'whatever's' hidden under Fluffy. Don't worry, the troll is still a factor.**

**Read and review! Let me know about the code if you think you've got it!**


	8. Christmas and The Mirror of Erised

**Thank you for all of your wonderful reviews! I ended the chapter on a bit of an awkward note, I know, but I couldn't continue it without dragging on the scene.**

**Anyway, I hope you're all looking forward to Halloween!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter**

* * *

Everyone had filed downstairs, excited chatter filling the air. The Great Hall was decorated with huge carved pumpkins, and the candles had been spelled to glow black and orange in honor of the holiday.

Gabriel personally thought the holiday's only redeeming quality was the inane amounts of candy piled everywhere. He remembered the start of the pagan holiday, and what had happened the last time Samhain rose [why the humans named it after the demon in the beginning was beyond him] but the candy made him almost regretful that his plan had to be put into action today.

Gabriel knew Hermione must have been wondering where he was, and as he slipped away from the group he caught a glance of Michael looking around in confusion. Gabriel had come down with the rest of the Ravenclaw first-years, but took a sharp turn away halfway down and took his own path straight for the third floor corridor.

The third floor was irritatingly elusive, and Gabriel found himself on another turnoff-less corridor that led him to a tower on the other side of the school. Gabriel was fuming as he finally found the staircase that would lead to the forbidden corridor, swearing that he'd make a map of the school to finally be able to find his way around.

Unfortunately, Fate seemed to have other plans. Gabriel had never liked her, or her sisters.

Footsteps approached on an adjoining hallway. Gabriel quickly found a small alcove to hide in, cloaking himself with a whispered word. He stayed completely silent, and narrowed his eyes as Quirrel of all people walked past him purposefully. He was heading in the exact same direction that Gabriel had been going, towards the corridor.

_What is he doing? Or rather, _Gabriel amended his thoughts. _What is that soul shard in him forcing him to do?_

Making sure that the cloaking enchantment was still safely wrapped around him, Gabriel slipped out of the alcove, following the man down the stone hallway.

Quirrel came to a stop in front of the door Gabriel had locked just a week or two ago. Glancing around and completely missing Gabriel standing right behind him, he hurriedly unlocked the door and swept in.

Gabriel followed him in. Quirrel was rattling the handle of the door that barred the dog from leaving. Obviously he was having trouble with whatever spell Hermione used on it, though Gabriel felt like the minor enchantment should have faded by now.

He snarled angrily and took out his wand, muttering spells under his breath. The door sprang open, letting growls filter out into the hall. Quirrel conjured a harp, which began playing itself. From inside the door, the growls decreased until there was absolute silence. Gabriel followed the man in and saw the dog lying on the floor, dead asleep.

_That's useful to know. _Gabriel had intended to just incapacitate the dog, but if it was unharmed it would draw less attention. Quirrel had just begun trying to shift one of its paws off the trapdoor when someone else's footsteps could be heard rapidly clicking against the floor.

Quirrel seemed to panic, and as Gabriel watched he turned himself into some sort of human chameleon and stuffed himself into a corner. Gabriel could see the faint trace he left, a shadow where there shouldn't be one, but in the corner he was remarkably well hidden.

Snape of all people strode into the room, glancing around suspiciously. He saw neither Quirrel nor Gabriel, and as he took out his wand Gabriel noticed Quirrel jump. The latter subtly took out his wand and vanished the harp he'd conjured, giving Gabriel precious seconds of _oh holy shit time to leave._

He wouldn't be able to do anything about the dog without alerting Snape to his presence, and the black-robed man was blocking the door. The Cerberus sniffed as he woke up, and Snape's attention darted to the dog.

Snape's quick reflexes saved him from being bitten in two. Gabriel let out a quiet "Oooh," as the dog's teeth bit into the professor's leg. Quirrel was fleeing the room, and his shadow darted obviously across the floor. Snape, however, was occupied with freeing himself from the Cerberus's left head, which gave Gabriel enough time to sneak out as well. Quirrel had vanished, and so Gabriel darted out of the hall, dropping his spell as he did so.

The man was nowhere in sight in the main part of the castle either. Gabriel heard a door slam behind him and decided it would be a good idea to leave before Snape caught him.

Now his plans had been completely ruined. Gabriel tried to think of another time he could try for the treasure, while cursing both Snape and Quirrel for foiling him. He'd have to make sure no one else could come in next time he made a grab for it.

Gabriel slowed as he approached a place in the castle that was far away enough from the third floor corridor. He walked along the unremarkable hallway, wondering if maybe he should just give it up for now. He might have gone back to the dorm to try and decipher the clue, but the location of the treasure had already been found - why bother with the code now, when he already knew what it said without any of the work?

Something thudding against the wall brought Gabriel sharply back to reality. Wrinkling his nose at the sudden stench, he turned around slowly and was confronted with the horrible sight of a troll standing behind him, wielding a huge wooden club.

"Come on," Gabriel complained. "Don't I get a break?"

The troll responded by swinging its club at him. Gabriel leaped out of the way, nimbly avoiding being crushed. "Alright then."

He dodged another swing, this time jumping up onto the club itself. As the troll raised it back up, seemingly confused about where Gabriel had gone, Gabriel jumped onto its head and brandished his wand.

He wasn't sure what he was trying to do, really, but he might as well try something. Gabriel brought his wand down sharply with a yell. Nothing appeared to happen, except for the troll slowly tottering over to collapse bonelessly on the floor. Gabriel leaped and rolled as he hit the floor, bringing himself effortlessly to his feet.

He surveyed the troll. It was impossible to tell whether it was dead or just unconscious. The thump it had made when it hit the ground had probably been heard through the entire castle, and Gabriel once again decided that fleeing was probably the best idea.

* * *

"So we have no idea who killed the troll?" Dumbledore sat in his office, surrounded by the four heads of house - sans Snape, of course. Halloween had been one disaster after another, it seemed.

"None," replied McGonagall. "And the remarkable thing is that it was totally unharmed, save for the fact that it was dead. Usually this is only seen with-"

"The Killing Curse," Dumbledore finished heavily. "The wards have registered no one using that spell, Minerva, and I hardly think that one of the Professors performed it."

"Well, then what killed the troll?" Sprout put in. She looked worried, her flyaway hair even messier than usual. "Albus, if something else is in the school - well, it's been hard enough with that dog here!"

"Pomona," Dumbledore reassured her, "I promise, we will get to the bottom of this."

"Have the wards gone off at all?" McGonagall asked. Dumbledore sighed.

"There has been not a thing out of place, according to the wards. They did not register the troll getting in, and I found traces of several spells on the creature which may have allowed this," he said. "However, I am just as in the dark as you are as to the identity of its killer. It is no Dark creature, that much I am assured of."

"Then what is it?" Flitwick asked.

Dumbledore met their gazes. "I have no idea."

* * *

"Harry!" Michael looked up as Gabriel entered the dorm. "There you are! I didn't see you at the feast!"

"Didn't feel like coming," said Gabriel nonchalantly. He took a seat next to Michael. "What are you doing?"

"Potions homework." Gabriel glanced down at Michael's parchment with a sinking feeling.

"...We had-"

"Yes, we did." Michael had already experienced Gabriel's forgetfulness when it came to homework. "Would you like the list I wrote down?"

"Why did you do that?"

Michael shifted in nir seat. "Well, you know, I know you always forget about unless someone reminds you."

"...Thanks." Gabriel wasn't sure what the tingly feeling in his chest was as he accepted the parchment from Michael, and tried to ignore it.

"Hold on, since when does Sprout assign homework?"

* * *

"So what are you doing for Christmas?" Hermione squeezed in between Michael and Gabriel at breakfast a fortnight or so later.

"Christmas already?" Michael turned to stare at her. "It's only November!"

"November nineteenth," Hermione corrected nir. "That's only a month. It's about time to start thinking about it, anyway."

Gabriel groaned under his breath. Christmas. Great. Just what he wanted to think about.

Hermione poked him. "Why are you groaning about Christmas? Don't you like it?"

"Not really," Gabriel muttered. Seeing Michael and Hermione's shock, he elaborated with a completely fictional tale, at least where the Duresleys were concerned. "My family's pretty religious," he said, "So we've never celebrated Christmas in the modern way. Not presents or anything like that, just-" he affected a deep voice. "The birth of Jesus Christ."

"That's tough," Michael sympathized, while also looking incredibly confused.

"Does the magical world even practice Christianity?" Hermione asked. "I mean, because of the religious backing of the witch hunts and all that."

"Not as far as I know." Michael said, shrugging. Ne turned back to his breakfast. "But I don't really know - I mean, I'm only a half-blood. You'd have to ask a pretty old pureblood family to find out. I don't know if there's any one religion that everyone follows."

"Then why celebrate Christmas?" Michael shrugged helplessly in answer to Hermione's question.

"Beats me."

"When do we get off for winter break, anyway?" Gabriel asked them.

"You're not leaving, are you?" Michael looked worried at the idea.

"No..?"

"Oh, good." Gabriel gave nir a look that said _please explain. _"My family's gone on holiday," Michael told them, "And they won't be back until January, so I've got to stay here over break."

"What about you, Hermione?" Gabriel turned to her. Hermione looked a little embarrassed.

"I'm going home. I've never been away this long before, so it'll be nice to see my parents again." she said. "It's too bad that I won't be here to celebrate with you."

"It'll be fine." Gabriel waved away her concerns.

"I'll send you something really good to make up for it," Hermione promised, stubbornness crossing her features.

"You do that."

* * *

Michael pulled Gabriel aside after class one day. "Do you have any idea what kind of thing Hermione would like as a present?"

Gabriel stared at Michael's worried face. "Why are you sending her a Christmas present?"

Ne shrugged. "She's your friend, and I'm your friend, so I figured it would be nice."

Gabriel stared with narrowed eyes at Michael, who began to fidget in place.

"Oho," Gabriel suddenly realized what was going on. "You _like _her!"

"I do not!" The blush on nir face spoke otherwise.

Gabriel smothered a laugh. "Sure, Michael. Send her a book - that's a safe bet."

"But what _kind_?"

"A history book?" Gabriel suggested randomly. "Something with absolutely no pictures. That will break the deal for sure."

"Really?"

Gabriel rolled his eyes. "Yes, Michael. I'm suggesting you send her the Encyclopedia Britannica for Christmas. She'll be thrilled."

Michael glared at Gabriel, with no real feeling behind the look. "Don't do that."

"Do what?" Gabriel's innocent look was lost on Michael, who had turned nir back on Gabriel to head to their next class. "Hey, why are you leaving without me? I thought you enjoyed my wonderful company."

"Sure, Harry." Michael called over nir shoulder. "Whatever makes you happy."

* * *

November came and went, dumping a load of snow over the highlands in which Hogwarts was located. The younger students took to wearing their gloves and cloaks in the corridors, while the upper years cast warming charms on themselves and occasionally helped out those who couldn't. The pumpkins from Halloween were long gone, and in their place were twelve huge evergreeens decorated with magically conjured ornaments. There was an angel decoration on top of each of them, a silly gold thing with a long dress, white wings, and a thin wire halo, and Gabriel had to restrain himself from replacing them with versions of his brothers.

[Okay, he might have broken that particular resolution. But it was hilarious to see people's faces when they saw what the angels had been replaced with - Gabriel had taken a load of cotton balls, spelled them to glow light blue, and replaced the angels with giant masses of them glued together. It wasn't the wizards fault that they couldn't appreciate a good representation of an angel's true form. The best bit was that everyone blamed a pair of twins from Gryffindor, who were apparently notorious for this kind of thing].

Winter break was a welcome pause from classes and homework, even to Gabriel, who had done barely any of his since the year began. He had only started to do better after Hermione started threatening to force him to do it in front of her so she could make sure it was done right. Michael had helped her do it, suppressing giggles behind nir hands as Hermione practically shouted at Gabriel.

Hermione was back at her parent's by now, and before she left she had promised to send the presents so that they would reach Hogwarts on time. Gabriel had smiled and waved, but he was possibly the only person in the castle who was not feeling the holiday cheer.

"Why are you so..." Michael gestured vaguely at Gabriel in a moment of frustration. "Like this?"

_Because it's not even Christ's real birthday, this holiday is stupid, and it's reminding me of being forced to go talk to Mary, which was one of the most frustrating things I have ever done. _Gabriel faked a small smile. "It's nothing, Michael. I'm just used to a more subdued Christmas."

Michael did not look convinced. Ne tried changing the subject. "You said your family's religious, right? What is this holiday for anyway? I never learned that."

Gabriel's explanation of the events leading up to the modern holiday soon amassed a crowd of curious, non-Muggleborn Ravenclaws, who started asking all sorts of questions about Christianity until Gabriel locked himself in the dorm to get a reprieve. One thing he did not intend to spend winter break doing was answering questions from tactless classmates about his family and himself, or answering the latter in the third person.

Christmas morning arrived with Michael slamming open the door of the boys' dorm to wake up Gabriel. "Harry!" Ne hissed, shaking Gabriel, who had pretended to be asleep as soon as he heard the door open.

"What?"

"It's Christmas!" Michael shoved a small box at him. "Here!"

Gabriel took the box in bemusement.

"It's from me, open it!" Michael said impatiently when Gabriel made no sign to tear open the wrapping paper. The other boys in the dorm had woken up with the slammed door, and were eagerly setting upon the small piles of packages at the end of their beds.

Carefully, Gabriel removed the paper. Inside was a small box, which held a circular medallion inside it stamped with a pattern of an owl. The medallion turned out to be a pin, one easily attached to clothes or a bag.

"It's a protective charm," Michael explained as Gabriel stared at the gift. "I had to send away for it, but I thought it looked like the best gift for you. It's supposed to be an angel - I don't know which one, but he's the patron saint of messengers." Gabriel had gone to get a drink of water, and he nearly choked on it at that, because _he _was the patron saint of messengers. "That's why it's got an owl, see? Because they send messages. It'll keep any owl safe if you pin it to whatever you're sending." Michael stared anxiously at Gabriel. "D'you like it?"

"It's great," said Gabriel, clearing his throat. "One moment-" he turned to pretend to rummage through his trunk as a cover for having completely forgotten to buy Michael anything. Hastily conjuring something, he turned back around and gave it to Michael. "I forgot to wrap it," he said, putting on a sheepish face.

Michael turned it around curiously in nir hands. "What is it?"

"It's a Muggle toy," Gabriel explained. "It's from this game that got pretty popular. I think it's Japanese."

"Oh." Michael gave the small Pikachu figurine a thoughtful look. "Sounds interesting." Nir gaze diverted to the end of Gabriel's bed. "Don't open those right away," he said hurriedly. "I'll go get mine and we can open them together."

"What?" Gabriel turned to follow Michael's gaze as ne ran out of the room. There was a small pile at the base of Gabriel's bed, too, brightly wrapped packages stacked on top of one another. Gabriel picked one up in disbelief, seeing that it was indeed addressed to him.

"Oh good," said Michael, coming back in with several boxes of nir own in nir arms. "You waited. Come on then, what did you get?"

Gabriel sat down with him and proceeded to open the present he'd picked up. It was from someone named Hagrid, who he vaguely remembered as being the giant man who had taken them up to Hogwarts on the first day. He had sent Gabriel a wooden flute, which looked hand-carved and sounded vaguely owlish when Gabriel blew into it.

Hermione had sent him a very long letter along with her present, with a large warning written on the outside to READ THIS FIRST! It was full of details on how her vacation had been, and asked about how he was doing, and whether he'd gotten her present in time. It was signed _sincerely, Hermione, P.S. Have a great Christmas, even if you don't like it._

Gabriel stared at the letter for so long that Michael finally asked "What, did she send you a love letter or something? You're staring at that letter like it's got the secrets of the universe."

Gabriel laughed. "Don't get jealous, Michael, I'm sure she's all yours." Michael had thrown a sweater at him [nir mom had sent nem one] and Gabriel had dodged it, setting to unwrapping Hermione's gift. She had sent him a boxed set of _The Lord of the Rings_ trilogy, along with a box of Bertie Bott's. Gabriel had never read the books, or really any popular human literature, and he set it aside carefully as he moved on to the other things.

The Dursleys, of course, had sent him nothing. Michael had obviously told nir mom about Gabriel, because he received something from her as well, to Michael's eternal embarrassment. She had given Gabriel a knitted scarf, in patterns of blue and bronze to show House pride.

"Tell her thanks," Gabriel said, and Michael nodded, nir cheeks still flushed red.

The last present was an oddly squishy package. Gabriel opened it to see a strange, cloth-like material fall out. He picked it up, running his hands over the silvery folds. "What's this?"

Michale shrugged. "Looks like clothes to me."

Gabriel stood up, still holding it, and the material revealed itself to be a cloak. Seeing a hint of strange power on it, Gabriel faked disinterest and tossed it into his trunk. "Wonder who sent that."

"Maybe the note will tell you," Michael suggested with a hint of smugness, pointing at a slip of parchment Gabriel had overlooked. He knelt down had picked it up. It was written in narrow, loopy cursive, and read;

_Your father left this in my possession before he died. _

_It is time it was returned to you. _

_Use it well. -A Very Merry Christmas to you_

There was no signature on it, and Gabriel told Michael so. Michael did not seem at all put out by this, and only shrugged.

"It's odd, though," he said after reading the note Gabriel handed nir. "Return your dad's old cloak? Bit of an odd present."

"I suppose whoever sent it thought I'd like something of my parent's," Gabriel said. "Not that big of a stretch."

"I guess."

* * *

Later that night, Gabriel sat in bed wondering why his chest felt all warm and tingly. What was causing it? Happiness?

Gabriel's train of thought shuddered to a stop. Happiness. Was it because of Michael? The letter Hermione had sent? He had gotten rather close to them. Casting his mind back, Gabriel couldn't remember a friend he'd had where their relationship had not been either 'we'll tolerate each other for the sake of the other people in this room' or 'you know we work pretty well together but let's agree not to contact each other again because we barely know each other' or the 'with benefits' kind.

Of course, Michael and Hermione were also the only two who had met him and befriended him as a human and not an angel or pagan god or trickster or any one of his many disguises.

To distract himself, Gabriel quietly got up and pulled the mysterious silver cloak out of his trunk. It was still practically humming with the strange enchantment Gabriel had sensed, but whatever it was it wasn't a predatory spell. Gabriel swung the cloak over himself, and nothing happened.

At least, until Gabriel looked in the mirror. Having settled the cloak over his shoulders and drawn it closed, nothing below his neck was visible.

"Awesome." Invisibility without having to draw on his limited reserves? It was the perfect combination. Gabriel was seized with a desire to go out and explore, something he hadn't dared to do - the earlier conjuration had used up a pathetically large amount of his Grace. Too bad his pagan reserves still hadn't returned.

The door was silent as Gabriel left, and the halls of Hogwarts were almost creepily so. Gabriel crept around in the darkness, trying to decide what to do. Explore? Make a go for whatever was under the trapdoor? The latter was an appealing prospect...

Something made a tiny noise in the darkness. Gabriel whirled around, the cloak dragging on the floor, slightly too long for his eleven-year-old body. There was no one in sight, but Gabriel caught a bit of movement.

The caretaker's cat was wandering around as well, and she seemed to have pinpointed on to him. Gabriel wondered whether she was smelling him or she was some sort of magical breed of cat. Either way, the caretaker himself would be after her in minutes if she got him, and running wouldn't help, especially in the long invisibility cloak.

Gabriel slowly walked backwards. The cat followed him unerringly, and as Gabriel rounded a corner backwards he almost crashed into someone and tripped.

"Who's there?" called the figure, the bright colors making Gabriel wince. They clashed horribly, even he could see that. He looked up and saw that it was Peeves. He was looking around suspiciously, and Gabriel had a sudden idea.

"Peeves," he hissed, flipping off the hood of his cloak. "For once in your existence do something helpful and get the cat out of here."

Peeves looked petrified to see him, and no wonder; all of the ghosts had been avoiding Gabriel ever since his first night at Hogwarts. Obviously they recognized what he was, and that he had the ability to send them off to the afterlife anytime he liked. He nodded quickly and toppled the suit of armor over, sending it on top of the cat.

Oh well, that wasn't at all helpful.

Gabriel scrambled up and took off down the corridor, not wanting to be found. He darted into the first unlocked room he found, shutting the door as quietly as possible. He heard someone running past and someone shouted "Peeves!"

The poltergeist crowed in delight, his laughter fading away down the corridor and the caretaker's shouts fading with him. Gabriel listened until he was sure that the man was gone, and turned around.

The room he'd darted into was full of dusty, unused desks piled in the corners. There were cobwebs everywhere, and Gabriel took the cloak off in an attempt to keep it out of the reach of the dust. There was an old mirror standing in an empty space that had been cleared, and Gabriel approached it, looking up at the inscription on the arching top and paying no attention to his reflection.

_Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi_.

"The hell?" Gabriel muttered. "Oh, it's backwards." He reread the words. "I show not your face but your heart's desire."

_Heart's desire?_

Gabriel should have left the room as soon as he figured out what it said. He really should have. He'd had more than enough experience with messing with things that turned out to be something other than he expected.

But Gabriel was curious.

What was his heart's desire?

Gabriel took a deep breath and dropped his eyes to the dusty, reflective surface. His heart dropped somewhere into the region of his stomach.

"Oh," he said. "It's you."

Gabriel carefully placed one hand on the mirror, his reflection doing the same. The person standing behind his mirror image smiled benignly. Gabriel sank to his knees and stared up at the presence that most definitely wasn't behind him in real life.

He wasn't sure how long he stayed there, but eventually Gabriel collected his wits. He picked up the cloak from where he'd dropped it and stood up again, preparing to tear himself away.

"Why weren't you there?" The question escaped him before he could help it. Gabriel berated himself for talking to a mirror. It wasn't like it could answer him.

The reflection seemed to dim a little, and the person behind him put a hand on his shoulder. Gabriel's hand moved to his shoulder, as if he thought he might be able to feel the hand in real life. Nothing was there.

"Well, thanks for all the help you gave us." A surge of repressed feelings built up in Gabriel, and before he knew it he was practically shouting at the mirror. "You made us do all of that! Not a single bit thanks, after all we did in your name! You only ever spoke to four of us and expected blind loyalty, well you got it!" he spat. "Where were you when he fell? Where were you when everything went to _shit _and we needed someone? _Where were you when we needed you?" _

_When **I **needed you, _his mind added, and Gabriel harshly turned away from the false image. Something dripped down his face and he discovered that he was crying, salt drops drying on his face in spite of the chill.

He didn't look back as he left the room and the false image of his Father behind.

* * *

**Wow. I think I got a little emotional writing this.**

**Read and review?**


	9. A Breakthrough and A Hospital Visit

**So.**

**I hope no one hates me for where I ended the last chapter.**

**Okay, let me start of by telling you that yes, the scene with the Mirror of Erised was necessary to the plot. Really, it was.**

***Coughs and dodges something thrown from the audience* But we're continuing on now! There's another little scene with the ghosts in this chapter, and I'll try and get to a place where we're finally moving on to the action, or just the climax.**

**Another thing I've decided: I will put all the years Gabriel spends at Hogwarts in one place. This won't end after first year and there'll be no sequel - we shall simply continue on to second [my god I just remembered Lockhart and started laughing]**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter**

* * *

Michael must have noticed something the next morning, but ne didn't say anything about it to Gabriel's face. Ne did seem to pay an inordinate amount of attention to him, though, and Michael wrote a long letter which ne refused to tell Gabriel anything about in the common room that night.

Winter break, for the most part, continued on as normal. Gabriel didn't tell Michael about the mirror, but he did show nir the cloak.

"An invisibility cloak!" Michael had gasped. "That's amazing! Where did your dad get it?"

Gabriel shrugged as he folded the cloak and put it back in his trunk.

"It's in really good condition, too," Michael said. "Someone must have renewed the charms on it."

Gabriel hummed his agreement, while wondering if the spellwork he'd sensed on it had anything to do with how long the cloak had retained its power.

The most interesting event of the holiday occurred only a few days before school was due to start again.

Peeves got his attention in the corridor one day, while Gabriel was walking alone.

"Psst!" Gabriel glanced around and saw the poltergeist drifting in the corner, beckoning nervously. Gabriel walked over, wondering what he wanted.

"What?"

Peeves cleared his throat, which was really very unnecessary considering he was dead. "I've been asked to give you a message," he said quietly. Gabriel wasn't aware he was capable of anything lower than a lecture hall level of volume. "The ghosts are meeting - they.." he trailed off and then seemed to steel himself for the next bit. "They'd like you to come. We've been wondering about your...intentions here."

"Oh." Honestly, Gabriel was surprised they were that organized. "Sure, then. Where are they?"

Peeves led him through a mess of hallways, taking routes that led away from the occupied areas of the castle and high into one of the towers. There was a door at the top, the handle dusty with disuse, and Peeves floated right through it. Gabriel turned the handle while touching as little of it as possible and opened the door.

The room was absolutely stuffed with ghosts. Gabriel could barely see the other side, so it was lucky they'd found a space big enough. There were the four House ghosts he'd been told about, plus Peeves, and several others dressed in clothing from various periods. There was even the ghost of a girl in a Hogwarts uniform, her eyes wide behind her glasses.

"Ah," said the Gryffindor ghost, Sir Nick. "I see you've come! Er - welcome."

"Thanks." Gabriel kicked the door shut, stirring up a cloud of dust. "What's this meeting about?"

"Well-" Nick looked severely discomfited, and the other ghosts weren't much better. "It's an annual thing, really, to consider how things are going as a whole in Hogwarts. We, ah, were merely wondering about your intentions in the school-"

"I'm not here to send anyone on to the afterlife, if that's what you're wondering."

They all relaxed simultaneously. "Excellent news, then," Nick said cheerily. "May I ask - how did you end up as Harry Potter?"

"Accident," Gabriel said shortly. "Believe me, if I could leave I would. I assume one of you is from the Founder's era and recognized what I am?"

"Yes." This time it was a female ghost who spoke up, one Gabriel hadn't seen before. "I have seen your kind before. My mother-"

"Wait, your _mother?" _Gabriel stood up straight and looked right at her. "_Mother? _You're related to Ravenclaw?"

She seemed put off by his eagerness. "How did you guess?"

"Oh this is excellent!" Gabriel almost jumped on the spot. "You have to tell me - did she leave anything behind? Any directions, to a secret room maybe, something she wouldn't trust to anyone outside the family?"

The Ravenclaw ghost froze. "You are another one of them," she said heavily. "Seeking it for your own gain."

"Wha- no," Gabriel said forcefully. "Look, just tell me if she told you anything about it!"

The tension in the room returned tenfold. The other ghosts started to edge away from Ravenclaw, and her eyes were wide. When she spoke, her voice was heavy with bitterness.

"I fought with my mother," she said. "I do not think she would have told me any secrets. But I did know that she had a secret she kept from the other Founders. I saw her writing something, once, and as she finished she enchanted the parchment so that the words were rearranged into meaningless runes." The ghost paused, then continued. "I never found her room, but I knew what she intended to hide - the diadem, her legacy, or so she called it. I-"

She faltered slightly, then steeled herself to continue. "I took the diadem," she said, forcing the words out. "I ran off with it and did not return. When my mother fell ill-" and Gabriel frowned at that, because an angel getting sick? "-She sent the Baron after me. He was man who had desired my hand in life, and my mother must have known that he would not rest."

Gabriel saw her hesitance. "No, it's - you don't have to go that far. Just...what did you do with the diadem?"

"I hid it," she said spitefully, and Gabriel's heart sank. "In a forest in Albania. I never went back to retrieve it."

_Great._

"It wouldn't happen to still be there, would it?"

"No." Of course it wouldn't.

"Wait - how do you know?"

He could see her hesitance. "There was - another. Many years ago. He was kind, charismatic, and I thought-"

"Okay. Right." Gabriel paced in a circle, aware of the silvery specters giving him nervous looks. "This is just perfect."

"What do you want with Ravenclaw's diadem?" The student ghost asked curiously, seemingly more bold than her fellows.

Gabriel sighed. "Well, you saw that Ravenclaw was like me. Turns out, she took something of our sibling's - that crown's not just enchanted, it's a weapon." He saw Ravenclaw turn a lighter shade of silver. "I was hoping to find it before someone else did."

"I am sorry." Ravenclaw did look rather guilty, but it was mostly hidden behind a mask of indifference. "If I had known-"

"It's all done now, there's no use apologizing." Gabriel tapped his fingers against his leg, his energy seeking an outlet. "But - if the diadem's really missing, then what's under that dog in the third floor corridor?"

"We do not know." The Friar spoke, his usual smile reappearing. "The Headmaster didn't make it known to us! But there are many protections guarding whatever it is."

"Thanks." Gabriel exhaled loudly. Things had, very suddenly, gotten a lot more complicated. "Uh, you, Ravenclaw - who was the other guy you told about this? If you don't mind."

She seemed surprised at his politeness. "His name was Tom Riddle."

Gabriel didn't recognize it. "Okay. Thanks." He turned to leave. "I suppose you're all safe from Heavenly wrath and all that nonsense...not like you weren't in the first place. Oh, and Peeves?" Gabriel stuck his head back through to door. The other ghosts had all abruptly moved away from the poltergeist.

"Yes?" There was a quaver in his voice.

"Try to avoid getting the first years lost. They really don't need the help."

* * *

As soon as he was far away enough to stop the ghosts from fleeing in terror, Gabriel swore violently and kicked the wall for good measure.

The diadem was _gone?!_

Who the hell Tom Riddle was, Gabriel didn't know, but he mentally put him first on his mental list of 'people to fuck with'. That diadem was more powerful than he could possibly imagine, and now thanks to a mother-daughter spat it was _completely _out of his reach!

Gabriel kicked the wall again. Then he looked around and guiltily repaired the cracks he'd made in the stone. Continuing down the hall, his mind spun with ideas.

The corridor was a no-go, as the diadem obviously wasn't there. Ravenclaw's daughter had said she hid it in an Albanian forest, but if Tom Riddle had gotten there first [maybe he'd given up on the vague directions and it was still there, said the little voice in Gabriel's head that was always wrong] then there was no telling where it might be now.

And a weapon of Heaven in a teenager's hands...well, there probably wasn't much left of him.

If he had managed to draw a reaction out of it at all, or even find it. Ravenclaw the younger may not have managed to lay any protection over it, but that did not mean whatever it was had allowed this Tom to find it.

Gabriel found himself in front of the door to the common room, the eagle knocker waiting patiently.

"Um, sorry, could you repeat that?" It had obviously already given him a riddle. The eagle repeated it, and Gabriel answered absentmindedly, walking up to the common room with half a mind still on the problem of the diadem.

The first thing Gabriel saw was that his dorm was empty. The second was that the papers in Enochian were still strewn on his bedside table, half stuffed into the drawer.

Resentment and frustration surged through him at the sight of the _damn _papers which he'd taken so long trying to decode only to discover that they were worth nothing. With a yell Gabriel swept them off the table, parchment scattering and drifting in the air. Phrases darted in and out of view and Gabriel started snatching at them, smacking them out of the air and crumpling them.

He was left standing in a sea of wrinkled parchment, panting and a furious expression. Unbidden, he remembered the ghost's words, describing what had happened and how little she saw.

_I saw her writing something, once, and as she finished she enchanted the parchment so that the words were rearranged into meaningless runes._

Meaningless runes...

Gabriel stooped and picked up one of the pieces of parchment. To anyone else, it would look like simply odd squiggles, or a made-up language. He remembered what Ollivander had said. Something was nagging at Gabriel, some connection he hadn't quite yet made.

_OH!_

The runes! They had been in English when Ravenclaw wrote them! That was why Gabriel couldn't crack the code - he was working in the wrong language! Gabriel quickly gathered up the parchment again, tossing it onto his bed and hurriedly pulling the curtains shut. It wouldn't do to be caught messing with something like this.

He spent the better part of three hours muttering over the parchment, trying to find a trace of whatever spell had magically translated it into Enochian. The parchment was old, very old, and any trace the enchantment had left behind had mostly decayed and fragmented, but Gabriel was determined to change it back, even if it meant dipping into his still-limited reserves.

The rest of the day came and went. People shuffled around in the dorm, but Gabriel was so occupied in his work that he didn't notice someone trying to get through the stuck-shut curtains on his bed.

As the light dimmed down the witch-lights Gabriel had put there on his first night blinked on, providing enough light that he barely slowed, wand tapping over the paper.

"Damnit," Gabriel growled as what felt like the fiftieth spell he tried revealed nothing. "There has to be a way!" He paused, an idea occurring to him. "Oh."

He stared at the paper, debating internally whether the results were worth the effort it would take to get them. Deciding that yes, they were, Gabriel took a deep breath to brace himself.

He pulled at the power in him, circling it around the papers in his hands. They lit up, Enochian runes glowing, and Gabriel felt for what he was looking for and _bent, _taking the time and history of the paper and pulling it in the opposite direction.

The parchment began to whiten, the yellow of age leaking away from the paper as if it were being pulled away towards the edges. The runes blackened, growing fresher with each passing second. Gabriel gave a savage yank upwards, and the paper fluttered into the air, as fresh as the day it was written.

The toll was visible. Gabriel slumped back against the headboard, propped at an awkward angle with the papers strewn over his lap. He felt himself sagging away, consciousness slipping out of his grasp, and his last thought was that whoever found him was going to have a hell of a time trying to explain the situation.

* * *

Something in front of him was very white. Gabriel blinked in bemusement - or at least he tried to. His eyes didn't seem to be responding.

Someone was talking next to him. Gabriel tried to turn his head to see who it was, but that didn't seem to be working either. Was something wrong with his vessel?

The events of the last night slipped foggily back into his brain. Gabriel groaned as he remembered the papers and the subsequent exhaustion, and hoped that the trace he was looking for had survived however long he was out.

The talking next to him stopped abruptly, and then resumed at an even louder tone. Gabriel winced as someone started talking in his ear, and did his best to shift away. The words gradually got clearer.

"...ry! Harry are you alright? Answer me!" That was definitely Hermione. There were two other people talking in the background, one of which was definitely deeper than the other - Gabriel guessed that this was Michael.

"Harry!" Gabriel managed to wrench his eyes open fully. Michael and Hermione were staring down at him with worried looks. He appeared to be in the hospital wing.

Hermione shrieked and choked him in a hug. Madam Pomfrey quickly disentangled her, saying "Ms. Granger! He's just woken up, give him some room!"

The two students watched from the sidelines as Madam Pomfrey waved her wand over Gabriel. "How are you feeling, Mr. Potter?"

Gabriel had to quickly revise his answer in his head before he swore. "Not great." He said, and coughed. When did his throat get so dry?

"Here!" Someone shoved a small glass on water in front of his face, which Gabriel took with arms that he had to struggle to use properly. Gabriel mentally took stock of himself, because 'not great' didn't even cover it.

His entire body seemed rebellious and shaky and refused to move properly.

His head hurt.

There was a scratch on his arm which stung slightly.

He didn't just feel 'not good'.

He felt _human._

Gabriel felt slightly sick as he realized what exhausting his Grace entailed.

"Harry?" Michael was staring at him anxiously. Gabriel tried his best for a reassuring smile. He took a sip of the water, listening to the mediwitch as she spoke.

"You seem to be in relatively good condition," she said. "I still don't know what knocked you out in the first place, though. Do you have any allergies, or chronic illnesses?"

"No," Gabriel replied, setting the glass of water aside.

"Hmm." Madam Pomfrey studied him carefully. "Well, I'd have said that it was a classic case of magical exhaustion, except your core seems perfectly fine. Still, I'm giving you a pass for the rest of your classes this week, just in case. I'm sure Ms. Granger will be able to provide you with any missed assignments." She smiled at Hermione. "I'll leave you three to talk for a little."

Hermione looked a tiny bit tearful, but restrained herself from hugging Gabriel again, which he was grateful for. Michael didn't look any better.

"I thought you were..." he trailed off. "When you were in your bed...I finally got the curtains open and then you were just lying there and you wouldn't wake up...!"

"Sorry," said Gabriel, entirely sincere. The idea of Michael finding him like that hadn't occurred. Something he suddenly remembered made him try and sit up, but Hermione rushed to push him back down.

"The papers," said Gabriel, looking straight at them. "The ones I had. What happened to them?"

"That's what you're worried about?" Michael asked incredulously. "Not the fact that you've been out for three days?"

"Three days?" Gabriel glanced around, looking for some sort of calendar.

"We didn't think you were going to wake up," said Hermione softly. Gabriel began feeling a bit guilty.

"Well hey," he said, trying to lighten the mood. "I'm awake now, right? And I'm...okay ish."

Michael nodded tightly, though ne didn't seem very reassured. "Right. You're okay."

* * *

Gabriel wasn't allowed out of the hospital wing for another two days, by which time the school week was half over. Everyone seemed curious as to what had happened to him, not just the other Ravenclaws, and Gabriel avoided answering any questions by taking refuge in his dorm. He spent a lot of time making up missed homework, as Michael had been delegated by Hermione to make sure he did all of it.

The papers were another problem. Gabriel still hadn't gotten them back, and he was determined to have not wasted his Grace. So on the Saturday after he left the hospital wing, Gabriel hauled himself out of bed and went to go see Flitwick.

_Knock, knock, knock. _"Come in!" Someone called, and the door creaked open without Gabriel touching it. Flitwick sat at his desk, bent over a sheaf of parchment.

He looked up, surprise on his face. "Mr. Potter! Please, sit down." Gabriel obliged, mainly because he still felt like being on his feet too long would make his fall over. Luckily, Flitwick's office was very close to the common room.

"Is there a reason you've come here?" The Charms professor was watching him carefully, no doubt looking for any sign of sickness. Gabriel made an effort to sit up straight.

_Showtime._

Flitwick expected a nervous, slightly ill eleven year old, and Gabriel would give him that.

"It's about the papers I had," he said, pretending to fidget slightly in nervousness.. "When I got knocked out. I, um, didn't find them in my dorm room when I got back. Do you know if anyone took them?"

"Ah," Flitwick seemed to know what he was talking about. He rummaged in a desk drawer for a moment, and then withdrew a small stack of parchment tied together with a blue string. "Is this what you mean?"

"Yes!" Gabriel could see the Enochian runes, and it was obvious that the parchment was still fresh. His spell had lasted longer than he'd thought.

"I must say, these are very curious runes," said Flitwick, flipping through the papers. "I have found myself unable to identify them. Do you know the language?"

"No." Gabriel faked embarrassment, looking away from the professor. "They're...I just made them up. I, uh..." _Think, you idiot! Think of something reasonable! _"I was looking at the design on my wand, and I thought it looked a bit like runes, so I drew some of them and I just kept going." Gabriel scratched the back of his head. "It's not a proper language at all, really."

Flitwick seemed to believe him. "I see. Well, they look very interesting," he said, handing the sheaf over the desk to Gabriel. "I should like to see it, if it ever develops into a proper language."

"Sure," Gabriel mumbled, taking the stack and leaving the office quickly. He sagged against the door as soon as it closed, holding the parchment tightly. _Thank Dad he didn't ask any more questions._

Standing up, Gabriel made his way back to the dorms. He didn't intend to wait any longer than he had to.

* * *

Unfortunately, the recent disaster ensured that the only tools at Gabriel's disposal were his wand and the magic he'd inherited from Harry.

Frowning, he readied his wand, raising it over the stack of parchment in his lap. _Great, what now? It's not like I know a spell for the occasion. Maybe just intent will work, like with the troll?  
_

Gabriel did his best to convey what he wanted. _I need the translation spell to be gone. _He tapped the parchment.

Nothing happened.

Of course.

It took three more tries for Gabriel to give up and go downstairs to look up spells for reversing other spells. Two hours and a helpful seventh-year later, he tried again, armed with _Finite Incantatem._

_I just hope there aren't any other important spells on here.  
_

Gabriel flicked his wand, trying to copy the movement he'd been shown. "Finite Incantatem!" This was some of the worst Latin he'd ever seen.

It didn't work either.

"Finite Incantatem!"

Nothing.

"Come on, you stupid paper," Gabriel growled. "Stop being so obstinate! _Finite Incantatem!"_

Something surged down Gabriel's arm powerfully and forced itself out of his wand, blowing his hair back. The Enochian seemed to lift off the page with the force of the spell, and as it fluttered back down to retake its place on the parchment Gabriel saw with a thrill that it was in regular English.

_Success! Now we're getting somewhere!  
_

Gabriel hurriedly stuffed the paper in his bedside drawer as footsteps came up the stairs. Anthony Goldstein came into the dorm, looking surprised as he saw Gabriel half hanging off the bed.

"Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." said Gabriel, his voice a bit muffled as he tried to pull himself back up. "This never happened."

"Okay?" Anthony sounded like he was trying not to laugh. "Sure you don't need any-"

"I'm fine!"

* * *

**Success! I have finished it!**

**Let me say something funny: I started chapter nine, then somehow forgot it was chapter nine, saw the doc for chapter nine, made a new one for chapter ten, wrote all of this, then REMEMBERED chapter nine when I saw the document only had 28 words, then copied all this over and deleted everything in the chapter ten document.**

**Basically, a lot of unnecessary work went into this because I couldn't remember how many chapters my own story had.**

**Anyway, hope you enjoyed.**

**Read and review, as always!**


	10. Muriel's Room

**Hey guys! Another chapter already!**

**Wow you are all going to be so disappointed when I go back to school and start updating maybe every other month.**

***cough* anyway, next chapter! This one took a bit of thought, since I had to think of a decent place for Ravenclaw to have created. Yes, we finally see the secret room in this chapter. I apologize for spoilers. [no I don't]**

**I realized, after reading through a couple chapters, that the code I mention being contained in the letter doesn't come through on the actual story! The format is much wider than these documents. I really didn't realize, but it any of you are confused about the answer Gabriel gets, it's because the parchment is thinner than the document format of these stories and so the words are in different orders.  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter.**

* * *

Gabriel was lying spread-eagle on his bed, the papers lying in a haphazard pile in front of. He had gone through them methodically, over and over, checking for every single kind of code that had existed around the founder's era, and then some. It wasn't an every-other-word code. It wasn't the first letter of every word strung together. It wasn't a numerical code. It definitely wasn't a mirror code, which Gabriel hadn't even bothered trying.

So what was left? Gabriel squinted at the paper, as if blurrier vision would reveal its secrets.

"Hold on..." Okay, maybe blurry vision wasn't doing anything, but he had noticed something.

"The..." Gabriel trailed off as his eyes scanned down the page. Perhaps the first letter of each sentence yielded nothing, but the first letter of each line gave him something entirely different.

Gabriel nearly slipped and fell in his scramble for a clean sheet of parchment. Inkwell propped precariously on the bed, quill in hand, and fresh paper in his lap, Gabriel examined the page.

"The...Hogwarts...every...eagerly...advancement...simply..." His quill scratched as Gabriel wrote out each letter, leaving a space in between each since he had no way of knowing where a word ended. "Them...Hell...and...leave..."

Words were forming on the page and Gabriel's excitement mounted. Never mind that the diadem was missing, he was finally getting somewhere with this!

"Lately...write...arbitrarily...yesterday...whoever..." Gabriel stopped speaking them aloud, worried that someone might peer behind the curtains if they heard him muttering. All of his dorm mates knew that he preferred to work on his bed with the drapes closed, but ever since the night he'd landed in the hospital wing and no one had noticed until that morning, they were a little more leery of leaving him to his own devices.

Each, stealing, the, upper, please, two, left, each, fear, the, three, Muriel. Gabriel looked down at what he had written, hastily corking his ink bottle.

THEEASTHALLWAYWESTUPTLEFTTM

Well, that was easily enough divided into words. Gabriel moved to one of the small desks that were provided, setting his things down and carefully secreting the original papers in his bedside drawer.

The chair scraped against the floor as Gabriel pulled it out and seated himself, quill already scratching out words on the yellowed parchment.

THE EAST HALLWAY WEST UP T LEFT T M

Why the random T's? Gabriel frowned until he remembered that, when translated back into English, the numbers hadn't been written out. He quickly rewrote it.

THE EAST HALLWAY WEST UP 2 LEFT 3 M

M was obviously a throwaway, as Muriel wouldn't have counted her signature. 'West up' could have meant several things, but Gabriel was willing to bet that it meant 'upwards, to the west' or more simply put, diagonally left.

So the directions now read

THE EAST HALLWAY DIAGONALLY UP 2 LEFT 3

Gabriel now found himself facing a problem almost as difficult as the one he'd just solved.

"Which east hallway?"

* * *

How many east hallways could there be in one school? There were only eight floors after all, Gabriel reasoned, and if he explored the east side of the school on each of them he'd be sure to stumble across a sign sooner or later.

As in most cases, it was easier said than done.

Gabriel only had the weekends to work after all, and February was no easier than the rest of the school year in terms of homework. Sometimes Gabriel sat down and seriously wondered if he really should have accepted the offer to come here.

The answer always turned out to be yes, as the alternative was spending another seven years with the Dursleys until he 'came of age' in the muggle world and was allowed to leave. Part of the reason was, of course, that he'd have never discovered what was basically his sister's will otherwise. But the Dursleys were the majority of his reason.

This decision, however, was sorely tested when it took Gabriel three days of combing the corridors and no results to discover that he was on the wrong side of the school. He nearly took a chunk of stone out of the wall when he discovered this, and after expressing his frustration with a couple of choice words, Gabriel located the actual east side of the school and started over.

This was, of course, assuming that the message meant 'the hallway on the east side' and not 'the hallway going east'. If that was the case, Gabriel thought he might be forced to give up the challenge altogether.

None of the hallways he investigated bore any sign of a secret door or any clue that might tell him where to look. There were no ever-so-slightly out of place 'walls', or initials carved into the wall, or even invisible marks in Enochian.

There was, however, one thing that Gabriel learned.

There were exactly four hallways in the school which went straight from one side of the castle to another - one on each side, for each cardinal direction on a map. Four long hallways, four founders. It was as close to a clue as Gabriel was going to get.

Unfortunately, there were two drawbacks. One, they were all on different floors. Two, technically three of them could have been the hallway he was looking for - one on the east side, two others who could both technically be 'leading' east while still not being on the east side.

Three, they went from one side of the castle to the other, and that was quite a lot of space in which to hide a secret room.

Gabriel decided to start simply - after all, once he'd translated it, the code had been very simple - and began with the hallway on the east side.

"Ugh." Gabriel groaned as he leaned against the wall. "This is going nowhere!"

He slid down it to rest on the floor. "Why is this so difficult? I'm an archangel damnit!"

The hallway, luckily, was mostly deserted, with only a few students talking and drifting aimlessly down by the other end. The majority of students seemed to be either in their common rooms or studying, as apparently the upper years had some sort of huge test coming up. Many of the Ravenclaws, of course, had already got together plans for study groups to prepare for the end-of-year tests, which were in June. Gabriel had refused to join on the grounds that it was pointless to start studying three months in advance, because then he'd forget everything again by the time tests actually began.

This did not seem to deter any of his Housemates. Hermione was just as bad, drawing up study schedules for herself and panicking that she wouldn't be able to remember the 1912 Werewolf code of conduct or some other tidbit of history that they'd barely even gone over in class.

Gabriel certainly didn't remember learning about it, but he was unsure how much of that was him not paying attention in History of Magic, and how much of it was the fact that Binns wasn't really a very good teacher. Even Gabriel found him unbearably boring, and he had been sure earlier in the year that Hermione was employing some sort of spell to stay awake during his lectures. Well, Gabriel wasn't really asleep in class, but he certainly wasn't paying attention.

In the present, these thoughts were the farthest from Gabriel's mind they had ever been.

"Absolutely no help," he grumbled to himself from his seat on a small stone bench which was set into the wall. "Thanks a lot, Muriel, your clue skills are absolutely horrible. The east hallway, you say. _Which _east hallway?"

* * *

"Harry!"

"What?" Gabriel turned around and saw Hermione thrusting a piece of parchment in his face. He blinked, stepping back slightly to give himself some room. "What's that?"

"It's for you." Hermione shoved it into his hands. "To help you with review - I know you don't like homework and such and of course you'd put everything off until the last minute-"

"Hermione-" _Please tell me this isn't what I think it is. _"Is this a _study __schedule_?"

"Yes," Hermione replied matter-of-factly. "And I really think you need to use it because cramming isn't going to work! These are our finals, Harry! They decide whether we get into the next year!"

Gabriel put a hand carefully on Hermione's shoulder. "You do know that exams aren't for another three months, right?"

"Yes!" she snapped, and Gabriel quickly snatched his hand back as though it were about to be bitten off. "That doesn't change the fact that preparation is important!" She dug around in her bag, turning away slightly and Gabriel was tempted to run while he could. "I've got one for Michael, too, so give it to him when you see him, okay?"

"Not 'him'," Gabriel corrected as he accepted the second sheet of parchment.

Hermione gave Gabriel a confused look. "What's that suppose to mean?"

"Michael's not a he." Gabriel glanced over the schedule warily, seeing that she had filled basically all his free time. They were even color-coded by class.

This didn't seem to help Hermone's confusion. "Are you saying Michael's a girl?"

"I'm saying he's not either." Gabriel folded his sheet up and stuck it in his pocket, where he hoped to forget about it completely and possibly lose it. "Ask them yourself if you're so confused."

"Who's them?"

"_Michael."_

"Oh." Hermione seemed less confused now, and more curious. "... Where are you going?"

"Around," Gabriel replied. "I'm exploring the castle." That sounded better than 'I'm looking for Ravenclaw's secret room based on a set of really vague directions'.

"Can I come?" And there went that time to look for it. Suppressing his frustration, Gabriel nodded.

* * *

"This castle's so big, though," Hermione said as they walked. They had wandered through the school and ended up at the hallway Gabriel had been investigating, mainly because Gabriel was very subtle about things when he wanted to be and he thought that he might as well try to look a little more. "I mean, is it really necessary? I suppose that when it was built they would have needed to defend themselves."

"Probably."

"But are moving staircases really necessary?" Hermione seemed very put out on the topic. "It's hard enough getting to class on time - and the rooms aren't even numbered! They could at least give us a map."

"I don't think a map exists, actually." Gabriel glanced out a nearby window and down into the courtyard, where there were a bunch of students milling around. It was the weekend, after all.

"Well then, it seems a bit ridiculous that no one's ever made one." Hermione said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Maybe no one ever thought of it."

"A castle this big, and you think no one has ever thought of mapping it? Harry, please."

Gabriel grinned at Hermione. "Maybe none of them were as smart as you."

Hermione blushed heavily at the compliment, choosing to look away and stare at a random place on the wall.

"What's that?" She said curiously. Gabriel turned around to see her looking at a rough patch of stone.

"The wall?" He suggested. Hermione shot him a look and walked closer to see it better. Gabriel followed.

It turned out not to be just a rough patch of stone, but something carved into the wall. Gabriel's heart migrated to somewhere in the vicinity of his throat when he realized that it wasn't just any carving, but a single rune.

To most wizards, it would just be nonsense. To Gabriel, however...

"What's this?" asked Hermione curiously, oblivious to Gabriel's shock. "It looks like a rune."

"It looks a bit like what's on my wand," said Gabriel, playing the part of 'curious kid' and hiding his surprise. Hermione whirled around to face him.

"Your wand? You mean the carvings on it? Can I see?" she asked eagerly.

Gabriel took his wand out of the pocket that seemed to be sewn into their robes for that reason. "See?" he said, offering her the handle and a clear view. Hermione inspected it critically, taking the wand and angling it to get a better look at the 'made-up' runes.

"Hmm," was all she said, handing it back to Gabriel. "Harry, you didn't make this, did you?"

"The wand?"

Hermione looked exasperated. "No! I mean this rune in the wall. You didn't put it there, did you?"

"Why would I carve something from my wand on the wall?" Gabriel affected a puzzled expression.

Hermione shrugged. "I was just asking. It is a bit strange, to find something from your wand on the wall."

"Well, I solemnly swear that I did not carve that there."

"I believe you."

* * *

Gabriel was, once again, hidden behind his curtains. His bed seemed to be his only private space in the entire school. And privacy was a necessity most of the time, including now. Gabriel was going back over the events of the year, singling out any suspicious or odd events and making a list of things to figure out.

Number one: What is the Cerberus guarding?

That was definitely on the top of the list, and for a multitude of reasons. The foremost being, why in Hell's name did they think it would be a good idea to hide an object so valuable it needs layers upon layers of protection in a school? Full of children? Honestly.

Number two: Why has no one else noticed that Quirrel is possessed?

If Dumbledore really was the greatest wizard of the twentieth century, one would assume that he'd be more on top of these things. Especially since he hired the man.

Number three: At some point put plan into action.

This was more of a note to himself, as earlier in the year Gabriel and Hermione had gotten to talking about the various problems in the magical world and had decided to do something about it. Whatever they could, anyway, even though only Gabriel would be around to see if it really worked.

Number four: Who was Tom Riddle?

This probably should have been number one, as Gabriel was far more determined to track him down and wring the diadem's location out of him than he was to figure out what was under the trapdoor in the third floor corridor. He had found Tom Riddle's name on an award in the trophy room, for 'Special Services to the School', which either meant that he was actually an okay person or he was like Malfoy and his father had donated a fuck ton of money to the school.

The list was rapidly devolving into questions beyond the school, as Gabriel added numbers five and six: Why was his Grace taking so long to come back and Why did his siblings come here respectively.

Number seven: How many of his siblings had been here?

There were many things Gabriel was curious about, but the first four definitely took precedence. Not necessarily in that order, of course, but the most important all the same.

At the moment, however, Gabriel had far more important concerns than unanswered questions.

* * *

He hadn't returned to the hallway where Hermione had found the rune immediately. Instead, Gabriel had waited, watching for the perfect opportunity to slip off unnoticed and open it. He found his chance after several weeks of being constantly frustrated in his efforts.

It was late April, almost May really, and the student body was either outside enjoying the weather or, more likely, inside studying for upcoming exams. The teachers had piled on homework as the tests drew nearer, seemingly agreeing with Hermione, and Gabriel had very nearly resorted to using magic to get it done faster.

Anyway. The exam fever had provided Gabriel with the cover necessary to get to the east corridor without running into anyone. As he stood in front of the wall, his eyes picked out the rune that Hermione had pointed out.

He raised his wand, tapping at the wall with the rune as his starting point. "Two up to the left..." Tap, tap. "Three to the left..." Tap, tap, tap. It didn't react at all.

Of course it didn't.

Why should anything be that easy.

Frowning, Gabriel tucked his wand away. Perhaps...it was much too early to be using his Grace after it had so recently been depleted, but Gabriel didn't have a choice if he wanted to get in.

Breathing deeply, he reached up and tapped the rune with his finger. It lit up, the fractional portion of Grace reacting with it. Gabriel tapped in the same pattern he had with his wand, his fingertip leaving a faint white mark behind that slowly faded as he moved on.

Two diagonally, three left. Gabriel waited with bated breath.

Ever so slowly, the wall retracted inward and swung out of the way, the grind of stone on stone loud in the empty corridor. The wooden door that was revealed was dusty, presumably from having been left undisturbed for so many decades. Gabriel swore he could feel his heart trying to beat through his ribs as he reached forward and took the handle.

The door creaked as it opened, showing a small balcony and a spiral staircase which led downwards until it faded out of sight and into the darkness. Gabriel peered over the railing as the door closed behind him with a soft thump.

Lights ignited themselves as the door closed, and the telltale grind of stone said that the secret door was keeping itself a secret. It was amazing the spells had even lasted this long, Gabriel thought, as he watched the tiny witch-lights blaze a trail through the darkness along the railing. The spiral descended deeper than he could see and as Gabriel walked slowly down the stairs he thought it was a bit anticlimactic that he went to all this trouble for a staircase.

It went on for quite a while. As Gabriel walked he wondered if it would ever end, since there was no floor in sight. Muriel wouldn't have been that mean, would she? Maybe this was her idea of an endurance test, since normally angels wouldn't get tired at all. But Gabriel had barely any Grace left, and so he did get tired after a while, at which point he sat sidesaddle on the railing and slid down at least half of it. It was much faster, though he had to charm the railing to stop himself getting scraped on the rough stone.

The darkness rushed past him as he slid, the lights which had blinked on in the railing the only source of light. Gabriel mused that it probably looked quite dramatic, with his face lit from below by the blue witchlight.

The bottom rushed up to meet him and Gabriel sprang off the railing just in time, landing and neatly avoiding crashing into the newel post. He looked around, finding himself in a small circular room which didn't appear to have any visible exits.

"Come on." Gabriel glanced around for something that would give him a clue. "Hello? Is there some sort of system in place here? It's me, Gabriel!"

Something lit itself on the far wall. It was a long sheet of parchment tacked to the wall, with a quill placed in a slot next to it. A sloppy signature was already inked there, the lines blurring as if whoever wrote it was unused to quills.

Gabriel approached and stared at it for some time.

"Samandiriel," he read. "So you did find this place. Were you Tom Riddle, perhaps?"

Gabriel snorted even as he said it. The idea of anyone describing Samandiriel as 'charismatic' or 'charming' was laughable.

Taking the quill out of its slot, Gabriel signed his name in swooping Enochian. The familiar curve of the letter was almost comforting, the sigil standing black against the parchment.

Something shifted in the wall surrounding Gabriel. He swung around as his signature melted into the paper, leaving only a faint trace of black like Samandiriel's had become, though Gabriel had assumed that to be because of age. Another wall was moving, retreating into the surrounding wall and showing a doorway into an adjoining room.

Gabriel stepped through and whistled, a long note stretching out as he looked around.

It was a large room, with shelves stretching towards the ceiling stuffed full of books. There was a path which led to the exact opposite of the room where a desk sat, a single torch illuminating it. Gabriel looked around in awe, wondering when Muriel had amassed such a collection.

A thought struck Gabriel suddenly.

"I can never let Hermione in here," he said aloud. "She'll never leave."

He walked carefully towards the desk, footsteps light and quiet on the dusty stone floor. The room was quiet around him - the kind of quiet that is not scary, or lonely, but instead suits the atmosphere.

On the desk lay a single book, bound by bronze string and with a cover of dark blue leather. it had a simple slip of the same string to keep it shut, which fell to pieces as soon as Gabriel touched it.

Handling the ancient journal carefully, Gabriel eased open the binding. It was Muriel's - her signature was on the first page. Gabriel closed it and did not touch it again - whatever thoughts were there were not his business.

Under the journal were scattered pages, scribblings in Enochian. One caught Gabriel's eye - for some reason, there was a folded piece addressed to him.

Warily, he reached for it and drew it out from the pile. It dislodged two more, addressed to Michael and Raphael respectively. Gabriel placed them back on the desk carefully, trying not to knock anything else off while being curious why Muriel had written letters to the three archangels, and directed his attention to the page still in his hands. Trying not to rip the aged parchment, Gabriel unfolded his letter.

* * *

**Aaaand I'm gonna end it there.**

**Hope you guys enjoyed my imagining of Muriel's secret room!**

**Read and review, as always! Reviews feed my muse.**


	11. A Letter and a Series of Challenges

**You guys didn't seem to really appreciate the mini-cliffhanger I left for you, but I really thought I needed to end the chapter there!**

**Anyway, I hope you liked my description of Muriel's secret room.**

**I know we haven't seen a lot of Michael recently, but I really couldn't find a place to slip nir in! I really meant to write more with nir, ne's a fun character to do, accidental pronoun typos notwithstanding.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter.**

* * *

_My dear brother,_

_If you are reading this then no doubt either someone has given it to you or you have found the room which I hid at Hogwarts. I have no way of knowing if you will ever receive this, or if any will come after me, but I have left it here nonetheless._

_I know you will be upset when you find the treasure of which I spoke, so let me apologize now. It was when I first came here, many years ago [though perhaps longer from where you are reading this] and I was afraid and in my fear took that which I thought might be used again for the same purposes._

_I hope, in any case, you will forgive me the theft of your Horn._

_I should explain further. After our brother Fell, I could not bear it. Michael seemed so strange and different, distant and far from the brother I remembered from my earliest days. I know that I never met our Father, but even he seemed farther away, and I know that you and the other two were as a group much changed after the Fall._

_Well, that is understandable. Out of all of us, doubtless you knew him best._

_I suppose that I hoped, by taking your Horn, that I could prevent anything like this happening again. It was a silly thought, but when I realized the true nature of my actions I dared not return and hope for lenience. If by the workings of Fate I am still alive when you read this, I hope you will not be too angry with me._

_Heaven seems changed - even the voices of our brothers and sisters are quieter in my mind, and there is not as much talking nor much important news. I wish, on the occasion, that an angel might come and convince these humans who persecute the wizards of the folly of their quest, but I know unless told the truth of the nature of their powers that they are more likely to side against us._

_I fear that my vessel may not last much longer. A strange sickness assails me and thought it does not seem deadly [at least to me] I fear I may have to abandon this vessel in search of a new one, which will undoubtedly kill her. Rowena has remained a thoughtful voice in the back of my mind, and I believe it would pain me to loose her so soon._

_I can see not what may happen to me in the future, and I have not the power to look. But should I have stumbled into some unfortunate circumstance, do not linger long over it. I can assure you that my time here was some of my happiest._

_If the other letters are still there, please give them to Michael and the others._

_from your sister,_

_love,_

_Muriel_

* * *

Gabriel was aware that he was leaning heavily against one of the bookshelves, but he couldn't bring himself to move. He was transfixed by the letter, staring over the written words for a long time.

So Muriel had taken his Horn.

Gabriel wasn't sure whether he was angry or not. The Horn had disappeared millenia ago, and no one had expected that an angel stole it. Gabriel had had mixed feelings even then, remembering the use to which it had been put and hoping that he would never have to do so again.

_That _time had been the only time Gabriel could remember that Heaven had gone to war with itself.

He carefully folded the letter again and placed it in his pocket, next to his wand. He looked back towards the desk, where the other letters lay, and reached for them too, intending to deliver them as Muriel had asked as soon as he could.

Picking them up let a third letter which had been lodged in between them fall, slipping and falling to the ground. Gabriel bent to pick it up.

The name on its front was Samael.

Gabriel froze, staring in shock at the name. _It couldn't be, _he thought disbelievingly. _Muriel wrote him a letter as well?_

Gingerly, he picked it up and stuck it with the other two. All three letters were put in his other pocket, separate from the one he had just read. Gabriel moved closer to the desk again and picked up each paper that lay on it, but there were no more letters and instead just small scribblings or notes or plan for some magical invention. There was even the very small beginnings of a map, with tiny arrows and little notes which Muriel had obviously used to find her way around.

Gabriel almost laughed at that. It seemed to have been an ongoing problem with the school - everyone kept getting lost.

As he turned away from the desk Gabriel saw a small pedestal, standing off to the side. Curious, he walked closer, and realized that this must have been where the diadem was kept. The surface of the pedestal was thick and dusty. The Ravenclaw ghost had taken it before any time had passed, really - the diadem could not have been there for long.

Gabriel thought of the diadem in the hands of a boy - a teenager who sought a treasure long-since lost, or so he thought. The idea of the Horn of Gabriel in the hands of someone like that made Gabriel almost laugh. No doubt whatever he intended to do with it had failed, and miserably. His Horn would not take kindly to anyone using but Gabriel himself - Raphael had learned that lesson once when he attempted to borrow it to muster the Host.

Gabriel put a hand absentmindedly to the unread letters in his pocket. If he ever did get a chance to deliver them, he'd have to enlist some special help - there was no way he'd be able to get into the Pit and back out again, without letting Lucifer out too or alerting every single demon currently downstairs to his presence.

An archangel tended to stand out in Hell.

Gabriel shook the thoughts from his head. He'd worry about it later - for now, he was stuck here and unable to deliver them.

He let out a long breath. "What now?"

* * *

The door ground shut again as Gabriel stepped back out into the hallway. He hadn't taken anything else from the room - it would be to difficult to explain where he'd gotten it if anyone saw him with a book that old, and if they happened to look at the title then it would probably be confiscated. Judging by the many, varied topics Muriel's collection had covered, things had been a little more lenient in the days of the founders.

The hallway was still empty. Gabriel glanced around curiously - it was incredibly lucky that no one had wandered by when he was leaving. He wondered why the castle seemed to abandoned today.

It came rushing back to him. "Oh, right." Gabriel said to himself. "We've got exams soon."

* * *

Gabriel was never quite sure how he managed to get through all the written exams when the heat bothered him so much. The loss of his Grace still affected him - the humidity of the Great Hall, where they took their exams, was so irritating that he could barely concentrate on the paper in front of him.

They had been given special quills enchanted with Anti-Cheating charms, which Gabriel thought was quite funny, and probably more effective than Muggle methods to avoid cheating. The written tests featured mainly essays, and Gabriel had a feeling that he'd made the last one [History of Magic] too long, since he'd given up on remembering anything from class and wrote from personal experience, thinking back over battles he'd seen and completely making it up. Hopefully he'd get something right.

Practicals were no better. They were called in one-by-one where the teachers assigned them tasks like turning a mouse into a snuff-box, or performing Charms satisfactorily on a pineapple. Gabriel thought that these skills were quite ridiculous, but understood the importance of learning the basics before going onto anything bigger. It was like practice for learning Transfiguration that would actually come in handy.

The last exam, History of Magic, seemed to drag on forever. When the ghost who taught the class finally told them to put their quills down, the entire class started cheering.

Now all they had to do was wait a week before they found out how badly they'd done.

* * *

Down in the Great Hall, everyone was celebrating the end of exams over dinner. Gabriel had sat down and noticed that, out of the corner of his eye, something was different. He looked up at the staff table and saw that Dumbledore was gone, his usual seat empty. Gabriel felt like that was significant, although the reason for it escaped him.

No one else seemed to comment on it, at least within Gabriel's hearing range. Michael didn't seem bothered at all, and Gabriel was tempted to ask why. Something was digging at him in the back of his mind, telling him to pay attention, that something big was going on.

Gabriel looked back up at the staff table. Everyone was there, save Dumbledore of course. McGonagall looked as severe as ever. Snape was still glaring out over the hall. Quirrel was picking at his food and barely eating anything, looking more nervous that usual.

More nervous...

Halloween rushed back to Gabriel in a clap and he remembered Quirrel's surprisingly well planned-out attempt to get past the dog. The entire student body was too happy over the end of exam season to pay attention, Dumbledore was gone...

It was the perfect time to make a go for it. Quirrel could vanish with whatever was down there, and if they couldn't find him it would probably be put down to whatever curse supposedly lay on the Defense position. He really had the best angle - no one would suspect a Professor so nervous he could barely teach his own class to go after whatever the dog was guarding.

Gabriel wondered if that nervousness was fake. He'd been distracted on Halloween, and almost never actually attended Defense class [which for some reason no one seemed bothered by] so this was the first time it had occurred to him.

So what to do? Tell someone? Gabriel almost laughed at the absurd idea of going up to a professor and explaining what had happened to them. If they actually believed him, they'd probably take about two hundred points off of Ravenclaw.

He couldn't tell Hermione or Michael - again, the angel thing was so ridiculous no one would believe him, and explaining that would be necessary once Hermione demanded to know how he'd figured it out.

No, Gabriel was very definitely on how own. He pondered when Quirrel might try for it - not now, since obviously he was here. Later today? Nighttime would be more likely - Dumbledore might not return until tomorrow, from wherever he was, and waiting any longer might risk it. Nighttime was also the only time that no one save Filch would be roaming the corridors, and even Quirrel could easily deal with him. He could just use the excuse of being a teacher to escape suspicion, if there was any at all.

_Well, _thought Gabriel, _I suppose the only thing left to do is get there first._

* * *

The door creaked as Gabriel slipped out from behind it, the invisibility cloak dragging slightly as he walked. The hallways were empty, everyone asleep in their dorms. It had taken ages for the common room to empty fully, tired seventh-years eventually straggling up to bed from their comfortable seats. Gabriel had been sitting by the fire for ages, the invisibility cloak hidden under his robes and trying to deal with the unfamiliar sensation of being tired.

It took him a much shorter period of time to get to the third floor tonight, mainly because Gabriel actually knew his way around now and knew which hallways to avoid. He'd nearly run into Peeves, but flipping back the hood of his cloak and his best glare had sent the poltergeist rocketing across the castle to stay out of his way.

The door was already open when Gabriel got there.

_Of course it is, _he thought. _It couldn't possibly be that easy._

He'd stuck the flute Hagrid had sent him for Christmas in his pocket, and as Gabriel slipped past the door he heard the dog sniffing madly, trying to figure out where he was. He raised it to his lips and began to play - not very well, but beggars can't be choosers - and the dog drooped, sagging to the ground dead asleep in a matter of seconds.

The trapdoor took two hands to drag open, and Gabriel had to use the levitation charm they'd been taught in the beginning of the year so that he could keep playing. He really didn't feel like fighting a three-headed dog. Once the trapdoor was open, he stopped playing and leaped in before the dog could do anything, its barks echoing after him.

The light of the open trapdoor shrunk to the size of a stamp as Gabriel fell with a thump onto some sort of plantlike material. He stood up and immediately fell over again, whatever he'd landed on twining itself around his legs and making its way to cocoon the rest of its body.

"What the hell?" Gabriel struggled out of the way, managing to draw his wand. "Let's see how well you can do that now-" He let loose a torrent of blue flames, a neat spell he'd learned from Hermione when he'd seen her carrying around a miniature fire during the winter.

The plant cringed away and wriggled off him. Gabriel stood up and stepped carefully over to a small walkway near the wall, keeping the flames going and burning parts of the plant to a crisp. When he was sure all of it that was anywhere near him was dead Gabriel turned and sprinted for a couple steps before he stopped. If he wasn't far away enough now, then that plant had probably already killed Quirrel and he was wasting his time.

The tunnel Gabriel found himself in was unlit and cool, which meant that he must be near the dungeons at this point. Gabriel walked carefully along. There was some sort of noise coming from ahead of him, like a flock of birds all flying together in close quarters. Frowning in confusion, Gabriel rounded the corner and saw a doorway with no door in front of him, revealing that it led into a much better lit room with birds as colorful and varied as a pile of gemstones.

"Great," Gabriel said aloud. It didn't seem to attract any attention. "They're probably going to attack me as soon as I set foot in the room."

Grimacing and bracing himself, Gabriel stepped into the room, wand ready and a shield charm [he might have spied on the upper years practicing spells] on his lips.

The birds made no move towards him.

Gabriel frowned and looked closer. The birds simply continued flying around the ceiling, rustling gently and...glittering?

"They're _keys," _Gabriel said aloud in realization. He glanced around, seeing another door on the opposite end of the room.

Striding over, he tried the handle. It was locked, of course.

"So I have to find the right key," he muttered. "Do I summon it? Do the birds fly down if I..." he trailed off as he noticed the broomsticks propped in the corner.

"Of course."

Gabriel mounted one of the brooms with as much distaste as he could muster, despite being the only one in the room. He took off, nearly crashing into the roof with the broomstick's sudden speed and veered away sharply, cursing under his breath and vowing to go back in time and ask whoever invented broomsticks what the hell he thought he was doing.

The keys had scattered when he took off, and they all avoided Gabriel as he flew. Gabriel glanced back down at the door, looking for clues as to what kind of key he needed to find.

"Old," he said to himself, eyeing the tarnished lock. "Silver, probably. And a big one." He cast about for a key that would match that description, but in the crowd of possibly thousands of them all flying and moving constantly, it was a tall order.

But not, perhaps, as tall as it must have been for Quirrel. Gabriel had sharp eyes in this vessel, and he spotted a key quickly enough. It was big, silver, old-fashioned, and one of its wings was crumpled, as thought it had already been caught. Narrowing his eyes and keeping it within sight, Gabriel drifted around on the broom, hoping to fool the enchantment into thinking he didn't see it.

Whoever had spelled them was obviously smarter than that. The old silver key never came within three feet of Gabriel - he would have to chase it. Sighing, Gabriel waited until it was about as close as it would ever get, and then whipped around abruptly on the broom, shooting sideways and pinning the key against the wall with a nasty crunch.

Gabriel landed quickly and flung the broom carelessly to the side, where it landed with a clatter on the floor. He stuffed the key into the lock and turned it sharply, and took it with him as he darted through the now-open door - no need to make things easy for anyone who might come after him. Gabriel hadn't forgotten that Snape had also come to the third floor on Halloween.

He glanced down at the key in his hand and felt a bit bad for it. Its wing was now badly mangled - it would probably be impossible for it to fly. Gabriel took the abused wing between to fingertips and leaned against the door as the dragged his fingers down the length of the tiny blue wing, feathers realigning themselves and good lord, there were even tiny metallic bones. Whoever had done this had done it properly.

Gabriel let the key go and it fluttered above his head. The door locked behind him with a click as Gabriel stopped leaning on it, and torches flared into being in front of him, giving him a good look at his surroundings.

He was standing on the edge of a giant chessboard, the black and white squares at least a foot and a half wide. The chessmen towered over Gabriel [something which he privately steamed about] and were made with painstaking detail. The knight had a full suit of armor, and even the horse had an elaborate saddle. Gabriel walked up to run a hand over the piece, and nearly jumped back when the horse moved as soon as he touched it, pawing at the ground and the knight in the saddle turning around to look at him.

"...Hell," said Gabriel after a few moments. "I'm not supposed to play my way across, am I?"

The knight nodded in answer to his question.

"Fuck."

Gabriel stared across the board, the faceless white opponents perfectly still. "You know what? Screw that." He walked confidently past the second row of the black pieces, the white doing nothing to slow his approach. Nearing the white pawns, Gabriel made to simply walk past, only to feel a sharp intrusion in his lower torso.

He looked down to see that one of the pawns had unsheathed its swords and buried one of them in his stomach.

"That," said Gabriel, "Was very rude."

The pawn almost wasn't worth the amount of Grace it took. The piece crumbled away, leaving only the sword and a pile of marble dust behind. Wincing, Gabriel reached behind himself to find the point of the sword and pushed it back through, the bloodstained blade clattering to the board.

Gabriel inhaled slowly, running a hand over his sweater to clean off the blood. "At least that's one question answered." Even in his reduced state, it seemed, the usual angel weaknesses applied. Which meant, no conjured marble sword was going to kill him.

Gabriel didn't bother to clean up any more, not knowing any cleaning spells and not wanting to waste his Grace. He simply walked past the other white pieces, which apparently learned from their fallen comrade and made no move to stop him. Gabriel reached the door unhindered [in the few seconds it took to walk three feet past the white ranks] and opened the door.

There was an absolutely _awful _stink in the next room. Gabriel covered his nose quickly and saw that it came from a troll, which lay out cold on the floor. He navigated around it, muttering "Thank Dad I didn't have to fight that one."

As soon as he crossed the threshold into the next chamber, flames sprung up in both doorways. The one behind Gabriel filled with purple fire, while the one in front of him flared with black. A table sat in the center, a line of glass bottles filled with various substances in the center of it.

There was a roll of parchment on one end of the table. Gabriel picked it up and read it, the material crinkling under his hands.

_Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind,_

_Two of us would help you, whichever you would find,_

_One among us seven will let you move ahead,_

_Another will transport the drinker back instead,_

_Two among our number hold only nettle wine,_

_Three of us are killers, waiting hidden in line._

_Choose, unless you wish to stay here for evermore,_

_To help you in your choice, we give you these clues four:_

_First, however slyly the poison tries to hide_

_You will always find some on nettle wine's left side;_

_Second, different are those that stand on either end,_

_But if you would move onwards, neither is your friend;_

_Third, as you see clearly, all are different size,_

_Neither dwarf nor giant holds death in their insides;_

_Fourth, the second left and the second on the right_

_Are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight._

Gabriel stared at the paper. "A logic puzzle," he said aloud. "Oh, this is good." Gabriel never thought he'd be actually engaged by something Snape had thought up - and obviously this was the man's puzzle, since who else would make a challenge with potions?

Gabriel paced up and down the line, muttering to himself over the clues which were still in his hands. "Poison always on nettle wine's left - there's always poison hidden in the wine? No, it must mean the bottle to the left, otherwise the only ones not poison would be the anti-fire potions...neither of the ones on the end will let me move forward..." Gabriel took each of the ones on the end and moved them back an inch or so, keeping their place but making it clear that neither one was the one he was seeking.

It had been a long time since Gabriel had played any sort of mental puzzle which actually challenged him, and he threw himself into the task with gusto.

"The second left and second right are 'twins once you taste them'...twins...so those are the wine," Gabriel decided, moving both of the indicated bottles back as well. "And there is always poison...to the left..." The fifth joined the four bottles already pushed away, the first having been discarded already.

"Neither dwarf nor giant holds death in their insides...well, I've found the wine, there's only one poison one left...and so if neither the dwarf nor giant is the right one..." Gabriel looked at the largest bottle, which had already been removed due to clue number four. "Tiny bottle it is."

The smallest bottle was made of red glass, tinted pink by the potion it held, and as Gabriel uncorked it and swallowed it it felt like ice going down. He grimaced and shuddered slightly, then proceeded fearlessly through the black flames.

Quirrel was standing in the center of the room, in front of...

Oh Hell.

It was the Mirror of Erised.

Quirrel whipped around as soon as Gabriel entered. "So," He said. "You got through after all...I did wonder."

"Hello," said Gabriel calmly. "I understand you're after...whatever the hell is hidden here."

Quirrel paused. "...You don't even know what I'm after?"

"I know it's not something I want in your hands," Gabriel said amiably. "But let's be serious. I'm not here to talk to you. I'm here to talk to the thing hiding under your turban."

Quirrel seemed struck dumb. "How did you-"

"Never mind that."

A dark, raspy voice echoed form nowhere, or rather Quirrel's turban. "Let me speak to him...face to face..."

"Master, you are not strong enough!"

"I am strong enough...for this..."

Quirrel, who had paled as soon as the Voice spoke, turned so that his back was facing Gabriel. He reached up and untied the end of his turban, letting the purple cloth fall.

Gabriel _very _nearly took a step backwards as the back of Quirrel's head was revealed.

There was another face growing there, protruding out of the back of Quirrel's skull. It was flat and noseless, pale with red eyes that looked straight at Gabriel.

"So..." It said softly, voice still rasping. "You are Harry Potter."

"And I suppose you'd be...huh. I don't actually know your name."

The face looked furious. "I am Lord Voldemort!"

"That's nice." Gabriel wondered why he'd named himself _Flight from Death _in French.

"You dare..?" Voldemort hissed, and Quirrel shifted on his feet nervously, obviously worried about the spirit possessing him deciding to get violent.

"Oh, I do." Gabriel walked carelessly down the steps, avoiding looking in the mirror again and stopping before he reached the bottom. "You see, whatever you were plotting, it didn't work that night on Halloween, or the Halloween in 1988, so I'm betting...you're going to lose again."

"You are foolish," Voldemort hissed. "You do not see anything but light and dark! That is not so. There is only power...and those to weak to seek it!"

" 'Too weak'? Says the guy sticking out of someone else's head." Gabriel met the red-eyed gaze. "What did you have to do to stay alive, hm?"

"I do not answer to the likes of you," Voldemort snapped. "Quirrel!"

Quirrel whirled around and snapped his fingers. Gabriel barely had time to register the wandless and silent magic before ropes were winding their way around him, binding his arms and legs tightly together so that he was stuck in one place. Gabriel nearly fell off the stairs before righting himself.

Quirrel had turned back to the mirror, and Gabriel became engaged in a staring contest with Voldemort for all of a second before he felt the probe poking around in his mind, searching for weaknesses. He looked studiously at the floor after that, vindictively hearing the tiniest hiss of disappointment.

"I do not understand," Quirrel growled as he stared at the mirror. "I see myself finding the Stone...I am presenting it to my master...but where is it? Is it in the mirror? Should I break it?"

"Use the boy," Voldemort hissed, and as Quirrel turned around Gabriel stopped holding the ropes he'd long since cut in place and let them fall to the ground. He gave Quirrel a split second of peace to enjoy the shocked look on the man's face before he flung out his arms and _shoved. _Quirrel went flying backwards, hitting the mirror, which shattered under his weight and crashed to the ground. Cuts were torn in Quirrel's clothing as he landed among the shards and lay, stunned.

"You know," Gabriel said conversationally. "I think technically, _you _broke that mirror, so I don't get any of the bad luck, right?"

"SEIZE HIM!" Voldemort roared - or he might have if he were not shoved against the floor. As it was, the shouted command came out rather muffled.

Quirrel hauled himself up and lunged towards Gabriel, who sidestepped and seized the man around the wrist. Quirrel twisted viciously in his grip, and Gabriel shoved his hand against Voldemort's face. The shade twisted and screamed, the face contorting gruesomely.

The scrap of Voldemort that had possessed Quirrel was tiny but stubborn, and yet even it faltered under the assault of Grace. Gabriel screwed up his face, determined to get rid of it once and for all, and he was nearly tossed backwards when the shade violently ripped itself from Quirrel and out from under his hands. The grey ghostlike thing shot away as Gabriel stumbled backwards, the barest scrap of Grace left in him.

"Shit," he shouted, glaring up at where the soul shard had vanished. Now what would happen? Gabriel added another thing to his steadily-growing mental list; find soul shard and get rid of it for good.

Gabriel sighed, glancing around the room as he wiped his hand on his sweater. Quirrel was lying on the ground, cuts decorating him liberally, obviously dead. The Mirror of Erised lay shattered into pieces, the frame the only intact bit. There was a scorch mark under Quirrel's face, from the combined intensity of Voldemort leaving and Gabriel attempting what might have counted as a smiting, if he'd been at full power.

"Whoever find this mess is going to have a hell of a time explaining it."

* * *

"Harry." Shake, shake, shake. "Harry!"

Gabriel blearily dragged himself into consciousness. He'd slipped back into the dorms late last night. Luckily, he'd managed to keep his invisibility cloak with him, or he might have been discovered by the teachers which ran past as he was halfway back. He'd had to duck hurriedly into a corner as they passed him, clutching the cloak to himself.

He'd actually slept when he got back into bed, the recent expense of Grace making him more tired than usual. Gabriel remembered all this in a flash, and he looked up at Michael, who was shaking in.

"It's almost eleven," Michael explained. "I didn't think you should sleep so late. Did you stay up reading or something?"

"Or something," Gabriel agreed with a smirk.

* * *

**Tada! A superlong chapter for you guys. I made a couple of edits, as I realized later that I couldn't actually kill that particular Voldemort piece if I wanted the plotline to continue.**

**A brief explanation on why Quirrel was not burned by Gabriel's hands:**

**Lily's protection, as demonstrated in the first book, affected Harry because she died for him.**

**Gabriel is not Harry.**

**Harry is long since dead.**

**Thus, the protection no longer exists.**


	12. Summer

**I hope you all enjoyed the last chapter! Thanks to all of those who reviewed - I promise I'll answer your questions soon! Eventually. Maybe. The story will get there at some point. That's really all I can offer.**

**I have created so many possible directions for this story to go in I'm not sure what to do about them! This is the problem of the method I use when writing. **

**I thought it was a little awkward at the end, since I'm trying to write part of the summer while still leaving most of it for the next chapter, but oh well. I did my best!  
**

**Anyway, the usual, please read and review!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter.**

* * *

The fallout from Gabriel's trip through the trapdoor and Quirrel's subsequent death was surprisingly small.

A short announcement was given at dinner, almost an entire week later, that Professor Quirrel had left early due to unknown personal reasons. Gabriel, trying to conceal his smile at the phrase 'personal reasons' kept getting elbowed by Michael, who seemed endlessly confused as to why he kept giggling in the middle of dinner.

There was never an announcement as to what had happened that night in June - since none of the students save Hermione and Gabriel even knew of the dog in the third floor corridor, much less the series of challenges which lay under its guard, there was no need to. And since none of the students except for Gabriel even knew what had really happened to Quirrel, it was doubly unnecessary for the teachers to tell anyone.

Gabriel was sure that they had been endlessly confused by it. The teachers looked a little harried in the days leading up to the end of the school year, and Gabriel was sure that when Dumbledore had returned from wherever he'd been a crisis had immediately confronted him.

Everyone had done well on their exams - Hermione, as it turned out, had managed to get a hundred and twelve percent on her Charms exam. Gabriel wasn't quite sure how, as no extra credit had been offered that he remembered.

Michael had done slightly better than him in some subjects, of course, but Hermione's scores beat everyone. One of the first-year Ravenclaw girls actually pinned Michael down and made him promise to tell her once he figured out how Hermione had done so well, to which ne nervously agreed.

Gabriel had done well enough on everything. Well enough to get into second year, at least, but in most cases better than the barest minimum. Something must have remain from the studying Hermione had forced him and Michael to do with her, because surprisingly enough he didn't fail his written History of Magic portion.

It was only as they were getting on the train for the ride back to London that Gabriel realized that he still had no clue what, exactly, he's stopped Quirrel from getting.

_I'll end up resorted into Gryffindor at this rate, _He thought to himself as Hermione dragged him and Michael into a compartment. _I think my vessel's been affecting me._

Hermione eagerly asked for telephone numbers, but Michael's family didn't have a phone and Gabriel blatantly told her that if she called him 'his' relatives would probably answer first and refuse to hand over the phone.

"At least owls don't need an address," said Michael helpfully, but they both looked a bit put out by Gabriel's prediction.

"Well then, I'll send lots of letters. And you two had better reply," said Hermione sharply. "My parents already asked over Christmas break if they could meet you two."

"Meet us?"

"Meet up over the summer? I don't know," Hermione said exasperatedly. "They just asked if they could."

"I'd probably be in London for most of break," said Gabriel, shrugging. Going back to the Dursley's wasn't the most attractive option, but he could just spend lots of time out of the house. It wasn't like they'd care. Besides, even if he didn't go back to Privet Drive Gabriel doubted he could find a place which rented rooms to an eleven-year-old.

Michael looked to be at a loss. "I live sort of down south," he offered. "Near London, I suppose, but not very close. It's a good thing we've got a Floo, I suppose, because otherwise it would have taken ages to drive up here."

Hermione looked disappointed. "You don't have to," she said nonetheless. "It was just my parents talking. They've probably forgotten about it by now."

Michael nodded distantly. They passed most of the ride playing Exploding Snap, which Michael had to teach them how to play, since neither Gabriel nor Hermione knew the rules. Gabriel nearly swore when one of the cards blew up in his face, and Hermione eventually relented and lent him a handkerchief to wipe the soot off his face.

"Wizards take everything so _literally. _Exploding Snap cards that actually explode, every-flavor beans with things like grass and earwax - it's ridiculous," said Gabriel as Michael packed the cards away. The sun was reaching towards the horizon, which meant they would be back in London soon. Even the fields outside the window were becoming more orderly.

"I think it's quite fun, really." said Hermione. "It's the magic bit of the whole 'magical world'."

"I suppose."

"Oh, come off it Harry, you don't like anything!"

"I do!"

"What's one thing you haven't disliked? You don't like how literal they are, you don't like Christmas-" Michael jumped in, listing off things and counting in nir fingers.

"I don't dislike Christmas-"

"Oh, so I just imagined your attitude over break?"

"I didn't say I _liked _it, there's a difference."

"That's the same thing!"

"No, he's right," said Hermione, looking amused. "But it's just a technicality."

"HAH!"

"How come you're taking his side? You can't just switch!"

"I'm not switching!"

"You were on my side in the beginning!"

"If it helps, I'm on your side, Michael."

"You're the one I'm arguing with!"

* * *

King's Cross was just as crowded as it had been on September first. On the wizard side of the barrier there was a guard who sent them through in twos and threes, probably to make sure that ten of them didn't burst out at once and alert the Muggles.

There were parents strewn around the platform, waiting for their kids. As Gabriel passed through the barrier guarding Platform Nine and three quarters, he wasn't surprised to see that the Dursleys were nowhere in sight.

"Where are your relatives?" Hermione asked, as she and Gabriel were still walking together. Michael had gone off with his parents, Flooing away and promising to write lots of letters.

"Probably just waiting outside," Gabriel lied. He'd had to take a bus up to London in September, and it was no great stretch to see that the Dursleys expected him to do the same thing to get to their house. It was more tempting than ever to just stay at the pub in Diagon Alley all summer.

Hermione looked only mildly reassured, but as she spotted her parents Gabriel slipped away through the crowd. If adults got involved then they'd probably insist on accompanying him outside, which would only raise a load of awkward questions.

The money Gabriel had taken from the vault he'd been left had only been used to buy his things for the upcoming school year. As he'd simply swept a load of coins into the bag, there appeared to be plenty of it left. He'd also noticed a Galleon-to-pound exchange counter at Gringotts, which he'd used just in case. As Gabriel caught a bus just outside of the station, it seemed that the idea had been smarter than he'd thought.

He'd have to hide his money pouch well - if the Dursleys ever caught wind of how many pounds he had, never mind the gold, they'd take it before he could say 'extortion'.

The bus only took him so far, though, and Gabriel ended up walking several blocks to get to Privet Drive. As he arrived on the front door, he thought he saw someone peering though the curtains from across the street.

The aunt answered the door.

"Hello," Gabriel said. "Unfortunately I'm stuck here over the summer."

The aunt's eyes darted to the window of the house across the street, where a curtain was hastily pulled shut. "Get inside," she hissed.

As Gabriel stepped over the threshold the aunt practically slammed the door behind him. She eyed his trunk warily.

"I'll just be going upstairs." Gabriel hauled his trunk up the carpeted stairs and found that his room seemed to have reverted to what its original purpose had been - someone [most likely Dudley] had tossed a load of broken toys and candy wrappers onto the floor and various other surfaces. Gabriel eyed the mess distastefully and let his trunk thump onto the ground, wondering if he should really waste his Grace cleaning it up.

"Home sweet home," he said sarcastically to himself. "What a great summer this is going to be."

* * *

Summer that year on Privet Drive was simultaneously the worst and the best that Gabriel had ever had, for two reasons. The best, because the Dursleys ignored him the entire time and now he could actually go out and do stuff, thanks to his exchanged money. And the worst, because for some reason Hermione and Michael had decided to not write to him. At all.

"We'll write lots, we promise," Gabriel muttered to himself as he walked around somewhere near what counted as downtown in this tiny suburb. "Lots and none at all it is, then." He'd entertained himself by reading the Lord of the Rings books Hermione had given him for Christmas, and found a copy of the Hobbit included which he hadn't noticed before.

"Maybe Hermione hasn't sent anything because she hasn't got an owl," Gabriel mused, and then grimaced at his own hopefulness. He was turning into an actual child. This was ridiculous.

_Screw them, _he thought. _If they're going to be like that I suppose I won't send anything either. Not that I could. _Gabriel didn't even own an owl.

And Hermione not having an owl either would be no excuse - she'd even asked for his Muggle address, and Gabriel had given it, so an owl wasn't even necessary.

_Maybe she forgot it? _Gabriel told the childish voice sitting in the back of his mind to shut up.

He kicked at a stone on the sidewalk in front of him as he wandered past brightly colored storefronts and under the mild shade of their awnings. All the time he spent away from the Dursley's house couldn't stop him from being completely and utterly _bored. _There was nothing interesting to do, and even the money he'd exchanged couldn't buy puzzles or anything even remotely challenging.

This summer was shaping up to be absolutely horrible.

"There's nothing to do," Gabriel griped. "It's - what the hell?"

He had paused by the window of the bookstore he was passing. There was a large poster tacked up on it, which featured a posed actor and the words 'The Guardian Angel'. It wouldn't have attracted his attention at all, had the name 'Gabriel' not been typed in the corner. The word 'Dominion' was emblazoned over the top of the poster, with smaller words underneath it declaring that it was on television at eight o'clock on Thursday.

"The fuck?"

* * *

**Leave a review, please? **

**Yes, I known that Dominion is more recent that 1991. However, time is screwy on this Earth compared to the other ones, and as the author I declare that it is actually 2013 as of right now in the story. This is for an actual purpose which will come about later in the story. Be patient.**

**Hope the end of the chapter wasn't too sloppy. It was written a bit hastily.**


	13. A Mysterious Visitor

**Hello and welcome to the beginning of... *drumroll* *deep voice speaks from nowhere* THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS**

**I sincerely hope that whatever happens to Gilderoy Lockhart lives up to your expectations.**

**Summer won't go by quite as fast, but we'll probably be on the train to Hogwarts by the end of the chapter, just because there's not as much to do - no bars on the window, no Ron to come by and rescue him even if that did happen.**

**Anyway. The Basilisk won't know what hit it.**

**I don't know if any of you already noticed, but I realized that if I wanted to keep the bit where Voldie comes back then I couldn't kill off Quirrelmort. So I had to go back and change that scene a bit! Sorry if you're disappointed. Yes, I know the original scene was much cooler.**

**Also, woohoo! 101 reviews! I can't decide whether I'd rather have those or the Dalmatians instead.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter**

* * *

Dominion was stupid.

Scratch that - it wasn't just stupid, the show and more specifically the character itself was a complete insult to Gabriel and every other archangel. Waging war against humanity? That sounded like something _Lucifer _would do. And all for his Father to come back?

Actually, that sounded like exactly what had happened on the Earth Gabriel originally camped out on. Except it wasn't _him _leading it but Lucifer. The show seemed to have switched their roles, but kept Michael as the good guy - and worse than that, they'd completely fucked up his wings. They weren't _black. _

Through some liberal spying around the neighbor's houses [not Privet Drive, no one there would watch a show like Dominion], and a couple semi-telepathic suggestions, Gabriel had managed to catch a glimpse of a few episodes. It only took the first one to convince him that someone was playing a very cruel joke.

The man who the show claimed was Gabriel couldn't be anything other than an outright insult. Gabriel wondered how a person could go about getting a show cancelled.

Hermione and Michael still hadn't written to him. Gabriel, by now, had made his way through every Lord of the Rings book that had ever been published [The Unfinished Tales had been incredibly frustrating to read].

Summer had dragged on, Gabriel had stayed bored and plotted ways to cancel television shows, and eventually, August arrived.

With not a crash, or a hiccup, but a party.

The Dursleys were all downstairs, awaiting some sort of rich client from the uncle's company. Gabriel had been forced to stay in his room this time, not like every second he spent actually in the house was spent in his room anyway.

He could hear them preparing downstairs but did his best to ignore it. One thing Gabriel did not intend to spend the evening doing was listening to the Dursleys suck up to this guy.

One thing he did intend to do, however, was check on his Grace. He hadn't used it all summer [and the semi-telepathic stuff didn't count, because that didn't actually use up any Grace] and so it _should _have been roughly where it was at the start of the school year.

Not so.

It was ever-so-slightly less than that, and Gabriel growled as he noticed it. What was _wrong _with his Grace? Nevermind taking so long to come back, he'd been using up large amounts of it for the most ridiculous, menial things!

Something was definitely wrong, but the mere fact that he _had no Grace _prevented Gabriel from figuring out _why._

Something clattered downstairs. They must have been having dinner. Gabriel returned his attention to the problem that currently sat in front of him.

Some time later, there was a sharp crack behind Gabriel. He spun around, standing up at the same time and sending the chair clattering to the floor.

There was some sort of creature standing in front of his door, in the middle of the room, wringing its hands. Gabriel stopped dead.

"What the fuck are you?"

The creature cringed away from his bewildered question, its hands moving even faster. "Dobby is sorry, sir! But Dobby has come to tell you...Dobby wonders where to begin..."

_Is this thing seriously talking in third person._

"Why don't you start at the beginning?" Gabriel suggested dryly. "That's usually the best place."

The creature - Dobby - shifted. "Dobby has come with a warning," he said eventually. "Dobby has come to tell Harry Potter... that Harry Potter _must not go back to Hogwarts._"

Gabriel stared at it. Sounds of the Dursleys talking drifted up from downstairs.

"Excuse me?" He eventually asked, voice dripping with incredulity.

"There is great danger," Dobby said solemnly. "Harry Potter must not go back! He must stay where he is safe! There is a plot, a plot to make most terrible things happen at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry this year." He had begun trembling a bit, which didn't make Gabriel the least bit sympathetic. "Dobby has known it for months, sir. Harry Potter must not put himself in peril! He is too important!"

"Oh, and what, I'm just supposed to stay here?" Gabriel asked angrily. "I've got friends waiting for me, you know!"

"Friends who don't even write to Harry Potter?"

Gabriel's eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Dobby," he said slowly. "How did you know that I haven't been getting letters." It wasn't a question.

Dobby gulped. "Dobby thought that if Harry Potter thought he had been forgotten-"

"_Have you been blocking my mail?"_

Shaking, Dobby pulled a thick sheaf of envelopes out from under...whatever he was using as a tunic. Gabriel darted forwards to grab them and Dobby popped across the room with a pop.

Gabriel gave the creature his best glare.

"Dobby," he hissed. "If you do not give me those letters right now then you will be wishing for quite a lot of things to be happening instead of what you will be going through."

Dobby was stubborn, Gabriel would give him that. He kept the letters firmly out of reach, though he was trembling furiously.

"Harry Potter must not go back to Hogwarts!" he said shrilly. "Harry Potter must not, sir!"

Gabriel leaped closer and grabbed Dobby by the front of his tunic, shoving him against the wall and seizing the letters, throwing them onto the bed.

"I am going to Hogwarts," he growled, very close to the creature's face, letting his Grace show so that Dobby properly knew what he was dealing with. "And you or any others of your kind will do nothing to stop me, do you understand?"

Dobby looked terrified. He vanished again, this time with a crack even louder than the one that had announced his arrival. Gabriel stood up sharply, swearing, before he realized that all the noise downstairs had stopped. Heavy footsteps were coming up the stairs, the uncle shouting something downstairs.

_Oh shit._

Gabriel's door was practically slammed open. "What the devil are you doing?" The uncle hissed. "You've just ruined the punchline of my Japanese golfer joke! One more noise like that, boy, and you'll wish you'd never been born!"

He turned and stormed out again, shutting the door loudly. Gabriel glared after him and then shoved it away. His mental list had another question added: What. The Hell. Was that creature, and why was it so intent on keeping him away from Hogwarts?

The nearest place he knew of that could give him answers was Diagon Alley. Gabriel cast a speculative glance at his half-unpacked trunk. Did he really feel like going all the way down to London just to get some answers?

Gabriel was out the door by seven the next morning. He'd left a scribbled note for the Dursleys, not that they cared, but at least this way he wouldn't get arrested for running away.

The buses only ran during the day, otherwise he might have left that night. As the double-decker rattled around on its way downtown, Gabriel read his way through the letters he'd gotten from the weird hobgoblin thing. They were all from Hermione and Michael; the stack was large, and the tone of the letters got progressively more worried as the date drew nearer to present day. Michael had started asking if Gabriel had been kidnapped. Hermione's got shorter and shorter, as if she automatically assumed that Gabriel was ignoring her letters. Gabriel resolved to borrow an owl from someone in Diagon Alley and write back to them before September.

Gabriel had vaguely remembered that Diagon Alley was somewhere in the vicinity of a place called Charing Cross, so as soon as that stop was called out he hurried to drag his trunk off the bus and make his way to the pub. It took half an hour of walking up and down the street to find it again, and the bar was nearly empty as Gabriel shoved open the door.

He made his way over to the pub, where the barkeeper seemed amused to see him. "Staying until the start of the year again?"

"Yeah," Gabriel said, annoyed at how out of breath he was. Angels didn't _get_ out of breath.

"You sure your family's okay with this?"

"They're fine with it." Gabriel waved his hand dismissively. "We talked about it last night." A thought occurred to him. "Hey, do you know anything about magical creatures that look sort of greenish, big ears, about yay high?" Gabriel gestured with his hand.

"You mean a house elf?"

"A what?"

"House elves," the bartender explained. "They're servants of a sort - live for work, the little bug- I mean, they like it. A lot of the old pureblood families have 'em."

"Thanks." Gabriel dug out his money pouch. "Is the room I used last time still unoccupied?"

"Sure." The man accepted the Galleons Gabriel handed over. "You can go right up - and let me know if you need a hand to get into the alley, alright? Just because this is a magic zone doesn't mean you can go breaking the Underage Magic restrictions."

"I know." _Damn. I was hoping to have a chance to learn something interesting._

The room was just as dirty as Gabriel remembered, not entirely fondly, but if this was what every room was like he'd rather have one he knew wasn't infested with anything. Gabriel let his trunk thud to the floor, glad to have somewhere to keep it - at least, until September.

"House elves," he mused aloud, sitting down on the bed. "Why would a house elf try and warn me about a dangerous plot? Was its owner doing the plotting?"

The more time he spent in the wizarding world, the more questions built up.

* * *

The bookstore proved to be absolutely no help.

There was nothing on house elves, not even a pamphlet.

Gabriel had resorted to charming adults into answering his questions, but none of them were very helpful. Even the shopkeepers weren't. The man who ran the ice cream parlor just shrugged when Gabriel asked.

"Don't look at me, son, I'm just a Muggleborn." He wiped his hands on a nearby towel. "You want your usual?"

"Sure." Gabriel had been coming to the shop at least once a day. Ice cream was amazing and even if they offered flavors like 'Ice Mice' or some other magical confection even the magical world couldn't ruin it. Mostly he got chocolate or some variant with chocolate in it. Chocolate was the best.

Okay, so maybe being a Trickster had affected him more than Gabriel cared to admit.

* * *

It was closer to September when Gabriel ran into someone he knew.

He was just wandering the street, really, having looked through all the shops already when someone shouted "Harry!" and collided with him. Gabriel staggered to the side and almost gone on the offensive against whoever had tackled him before he realized it was Michael.

"What have you been _doing_ all summer?" Michael asked when ne finally let Gabriel go. "I sent you tons of letters and you didn't reply to a single one!"

"You know, that's actually a really interesting story.." Gabriel said as he regained his balance.

Michael seemed at least slightly sympathetic, and very interested as ne listened to Gabriel explain about the obviously crazy house elf. "Why does weird stuff always happen to you?" ne asked. Ne had been told about the cerberus right after Gabriel and Hermione had discovered it, but hadn't had any clue as to what it was guarding either.

"No idea," Gabriel replied, shrugging.

"And it said there was some sort of plot going on at Hogwarts this year?" Michael looked troubled. "Should we tell someone about this?"

"Probably," Gabriel said. "But who's going to take the word of a house elf?"

"Good point." Michael looked thoughtful. "Dumbledore will probably figure it out of something does happen - he's the headmaster, after all. He'll probably take care of it without any of us knowing what's going on."

_More like **I'll **take care of it,_ thought Gabriel as he remembered how he'd had to take care of Quirrel. "So what did you do over the summer? I never really got the chance to read your letters." Gabriel had read them, but they hadn't exactly been detailed, and besides it was more interesting to hear it straight from Michael.

* * *

**The end!**

**Short chapter, I know, but I didn't want to drag it on. And the intro chapter is always a little short, so...tada?**

**Read and review!**


	14. A New Year

**I know I ended the last chapter a little abruptly, so I'll try to get this up quickly!**

**Ehehe, I think you'll appreciate what I've done.**

**Also, I received a review asking whether Michael was there for a reason or I was making him gender neutral as 'a mouthpiece for my social/political views'. Since I can't respond directly to you, your answer is here: I made Michael gender neutral because there are gender neutral people in the world and if one of them happens to come across this story, I think it would be awesome for them to see a character and go 'hey, that's like me.' Basically, representation is important. That's my reason.**

**[PS: If anyone could tell me who/what 'Terry Goodkind' or "Less Wrong' is, thanks]**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter**

* * *

"What is going on in the bookstore?" Gabriel looked down the street, where people were piling into the store and forming a line that wound down the alley.

"No idea." Michael said. "Maybe those posters in the window will tell us?"

They wandered closer. Gabriel wrinkled his nose as he saw the posters advertising someone named Gilderoy Lockhart, who looked like he was entirely too self-promoting. "Who's this nut?"

"Lockhart," Michael explained. "He's a famous wizard - he's done all sorts of things, like taming werewolves or getting rid of ghosts who've been haunting someone."

"Huh." Gabriel examined the titles of the books he could see stacked against the glass. "And he wrote a book series about it?"

"I guess." Michael shrugged, nir tone conveying that he didn't know much more than Gabriel. "Mum likes him, though, we've got his book about magical pests lying around somewhere."

"Hey-" Gabriel suddenly spun around, a smirk on his face. "Don't you still have to buy your books?"

Michael glanced down to the money pouch in nir hands. "Oh, no."

The bookstore was absolutely packed full, people [mostly witches] lining up to see a man at the front of the store. It looked like it was Lockhart - he was wearing gold robes, as if needing to get across the idea of how amazing he was.

"I've already bought mine," Gabriel told Michael as they ducked out of the way between two shelves. "So I can tell you with absolute confidence that we have to get his entire set of books. I was _wondering_ where I recognized the name."

Michael groaned. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me. They're so expensive!" Ne glanced down at the bag in nir hands again. "I hope mum's given me enough to buy all that."

"I'm sure you'll be fine," Gabriel said, still grinning. "But good luck making your way up to the register in this crowd, or even getting your hands on a copy. I think they're selling out."

Michael shot him a dirty look. "You're enjoying this, aren't you?"

"It's not _my _fault you waited so late to buy your things."

"Come on, you're helping me find everything."

"What, why?"

"Because I'm not going to go through all this-" Michael gestured vaguely, waving nir hands, "-By myself!"

Of course, all of the Lockhart books were on a shelf near the front, which meant Gabriel and Michael had to shove their way through the very easily irritated crowd. There were seven mandatory Lockhart books to get, and Michael shoved at least half of them into Gabriel's arms.

"There is _no _way I'm carrying all that myself," he said, maybe a little too loudly as it attracted Lockhart's attention.

He zeroed in on Gabriel. "It can't be Harry Potter!" He practically shouted, leaping to his feet. The crowd all turned to Gabriel as well as Lockhart pulled him forward, sending the books crashing out of his arms.

Lockhart evidently was trying to get a picture. Gabriel yanked his arm away from the man and backed off. "Do you make a habit of grabbing twelve year olds out of crowds?" He asked acidly, picking up Michael's books again. Everyone went completely silent, and Lockhart looked a bit stunned.

"Come on," Gabriel muttered to Michael, walking off towards the back of the store. "We'll get your stuff later, I hate crowds."

"Since when?" was Michael's only response, but he followed Gabriel all the same. There was another boy leaning against the railing of the stairs which led to the second floor of the shop.

He was looking at Gabriel oddly. Gabriel thought he looked slightly familiar.

"I would have thought you'd love that," the boy said. "Famous Harry Potter. Can't even go into a bookshop without making the front page."

"Shove off," said Michael defensively.

Someone spoke from behind them. "He didn't want all that!"

Gabriel turned around. It was a girl, maybe about eleven, holding a cauldron stuffed with slightly tattered books.

"Oh look, Potter," the boy said. "You've got yourself an admirer." He looked the girl up and down. "You must be a Weasley."

"There's no call for that," said Gabriel. "She's a kid."

"Obviously, you know nothing of wizard society." The boy sniffed.

"I know you're being a prick for no reason."

"What?" The boy seemed actually startled that he'd been called a name.

"Draco!" Someone called. A man came sweeping down the stairs. He was nearly a perfect, if older, copy of the boy Gabriel was talking to...or more likely, the boy was identical to him.

"Ah," he said in the same disdainful manner. Gabriel suddenly remembered where he's seen the boy before - he'd told him to try again when he'd stopped mimicking his father but holy hell, Gabriel hadn't expected them to be practically twins.

The man's eyes skimmed over Gabriel. "Harry Potter," he said softly. "I see you have met my son, Draco."

"We've encountered each other," Gabriel responded, equally coolly.

The man's eyes narrowed ever so slightly. Gabriel was all-too-aware that he's stepped over the boundary of simple introductions. This man was a politician - cunning in its fullest, and perhaps richest, if the rings on his fingers were anything to go by.

"Perhaps a new start would be better," he said silkily. "I am Lucius Malfoy." Gabriel's eyebrows raised slightly, something which Malfoy Senior obviously took note of. "You have heard the name before, perhaps?"

"Nah," replied Gabriel. "I just speak French."

Something switched in the older man's eyes, and he became much cooler.

"I think I'll be going," said Gabriel lightly, smiling fakely at the man. "Crowds aren't really my thing." He strode past both Malfoys without paying them a second glance.

The door swung shut behind him and Michael, who let out a long breath. "What was that?" Ne asked, a tone of slight incredulity coloring nir voice.

Gabriel was about to reply when someone else yelled "Harry!" For the second time that day.

"Oh Hell." Gabriel had just gotten the words out when he was grabbed by the arm, spun around, and slapped across the face.

"A _whole summer_ full of letters!" Hermione shouted at him as Gabriel tried to process the fact that she'd just slapped him. "And you never replied to _any _of them!"

"Hermione-" Even Michael looked a bit alarmed. "Calm down!"

"Calm down?"

"I never got any of them!" Gabriel told her, trying to get his arm out of her iron grip.

Hermione blinked in confusion, letting go slightly. "You what?"

Michael butted in again. "He's got a good explanation, trust me." Hermione waited patiently as the Gabriel explained [again] about Dobby and how he'd been blocking all of his letters.

Hermione looked abashed as he finished. "I suppose you didn't deserve that slap, then," she said awkwardly.

"It's fine." Gabriel waved her off. "If I'd been ignored all summer I would slap me too."

She still seemed anxious, but as they walked down the alley that wore off. Michael was spirited back to bookstore by a woman who was obviously his mother, promising to meet them in the pub later. Hermione introduced Gabriel to her parents too, who seemed nice enough.

"It's very nice to meet you," said Ms. Granger, but they both seemed slightly distant until Hermione rolled her eyes and explained [not in full detail] about the whole letter fiasco, after which they became much warmer.

"She was talking all about you during Christmas," Mr. Granger said as they sat in the Leaky Cauldron, waiting for Michael. Hemione blushed lightly.

"Daaad," she hissed. Gabriel repressed a smile and pretended he hadn't heard.

"And where are your parents?" Oh boy.

"I'm here by myself," Gabriel, said, hurrying to concoct an explanation. "None of them really like magic, so I usually stay here by myself for a week or so before school, then they come and give me a ride to King's Cross."

Neither of Hermione's parents looked very please with that, but they didn't push the issue again. Michael showed up soon afterward, laden with books and nir mother trailing behind nir.

She fell to talking with the Grangers, as Gabriel, Hermione, and Michael clustered around the other end of the table. "Have you seen Lockhart?" Hermione asked. "I was in there earlier, and his books aren't very well written but he's done so much!"

Gabriel eyed her in slight incredulity. "Sure. He grabbed me out of the crowd and tried to take a picture with me."

"Oh - well," Hermione seemed flustered and Michael jumped in and quickly changed the subject.

"Did you hear about what happened to Quirrel?"

Gabriel darted a glance at Michael. "No?"

"He's gone missing." Michael leaned forward eagerly to tell them about it. "He went on leave from Hogwarts but he never turned up at his house, and apparently it's been empty all summer. People are saying he's been killed."

"Don't talk about things like that!" Hermione looked scandalized. "I'm sure he hasn't been. Right Harry?"

"Right," Gabriel agreed slowly, hoping that Hermione wasn't any good at picking out lies as his mind flashed back to last June. He decided that another topic change was in order. "Why d'you think we need all of Lockhart's books for Defense this year?"

"Who says they're for defense?" Michael asked.

"Well all the other books we had to get are for the other classes."

"It's because he's teaching at Hogwarts this year," Hermione informed them. Gabriel stared at her.

"You're _joking."_

"I am not!"

"We have to deal with him for an entire year?"

"Should we add Lockhart to the 'Things Harry Hates' list?" Michael teased.

"Since when is that even a thing?"

"Since the train ride home last year."

"Is it an actual list? You seriously wasted time writing it all down? Give me that."

"No- hey!"

"Give it!"

"Hermione help!"

* * *

"Have a good time at Hogwarts!" Ms. Granger kissed her daughter as they waited on the platform. The Hogwarts express was sitting next to them, as red as usual and steam pouring from its small chimney. Gabriel looked away pointedly.

He'd hitched a ride with the Grangers to the station, after asking Hermione for her phone number and calling them on the thirty-first, pretending that something had come up with his family and he didn't have a ride to the station. Really, he just hated taking the bus. The Grangers were perfectly willing to drop by the Leaky Cauldron and get him on their way to King's Cross.

"Bye!" Hermione seized Gabriel's hand and pulled him towards the train, their trunks scraping on the ground. They piled their trunks onto the luggage racks and then Hermione went to find Michael while Gabriel saved their spot.

As she left, Gabriel spotted the group of redheads on the platform again. The girl who had defended him in Flourish and Blott's was carrying her own trunk - it must have been her first year. Gabriel let his gaze wander over the platform, taking in the crowd of students and parents and pets in cages and trunks lying haphazardly around the platform. He was sure that he recognized a few of them, but he'd barely expended the mental space to remember the teacher's names, much less other student's...and that was mainly because he spent an entire year around them.

Gabriel slid back into the seat of the compartment. He was back for another year. Gabriel wondered if he would really go for all seven years - he was steadily working out how to get the little magic core to work, and more schooling would definitely not go amiss - it was, for the most part, his only current method of defense.

His Grace, being the problem that it was.

Gabriel shifted and put the thought of his Grace away for some other time. Yes, school was necessary for now. Whether it would take all seven years to get a good handle on his magic remained to be seen - he hadn't had the time to try out any spells while in Diagon Alley, and he couldn't practice it at all while he was at the Dursley's, so for now school it was.

The compartment door slid open and Hermione came back in, Michael in tow.

"Hey," Michael greeted Gabriel.

"Where were you?" Gabriel asked. "It took you ages to get back."

"He was all the way at the other end of the platform," said Hermione, rolling her eyes. "Even though I specifically said to meet up here!"

"All of the fireplaces for Floo are at the other end!" Michael protested. "How do you think I get up here on time?"

"Alright, enough arguing," Gabriel said. "I don't wand to listen to you two bicker for nine hours while we ride into the wilderness."

"Hogwarts is hardly the wilderness, Harry."

"There's a_ forest _on the grounds, how many schools do you see that at?"

"Anyone for Exploding Snap?" Michael asked out of the blue, holding up nir deck of the cards.

"No!"

* * *

The trolley had come around again and this time Gabriel had been forced to show a little restraint by Hermione - he would have bought far more if she hadn't snatched some of it out of his hands and returned it to the cart, saying "That's enough, Harry, honestly."

"I don't understand what you have against candy," Gabriel complained.

"My parents are dentists," Hermione explained. Gabriel rolled his eyes.

"Of course, that explains everything."

"It's not good to have so much candy!"

"Oh, and what is it then, bad for me?"

"Yes!" cried Hermione exasperatedly.

"Well, I don't care," said Gabriel, catching a chocolate frog before it leaped out of the window.

"Why don't we do something else," said Michael hurriedly.

* * *

As the train rushed past meadows and fields that grew steadily more untidy and wild, the trio in the compartment had several visitors.

First was the girl from Flourish and Blotts, who didn't come in but instead blushed and ran off when she noticed that they had seen her. Second, was the younger Malfoy.

"What do you want _now_?" Gabriel said exasperatedly.

"i was just coming in to ask if you'd reconsidered," he said stiffly.

"Reconsidered what, if I wanted to join you in 'the proper realm of wizards'?" Gabriel asked sarcastically. "Because no, I haven't, really."

"I came here without Crabbe and Goyle for a reason," Malfoy said stiffly. "And I meant if you wanted to be friends."

Gabriel stared. Michael and Hermione did, too.

Gabriel considered his options carefully. On one hand, Malfoy had been rude to him before, on the two occasions they'd run into each other, and he'd also been rude to the girl who he'd most likely never met. On the other hand, he was being completely honest right now, and he hadn't said a thing to Hermione, so...

"Sit down."

Hermione shot Gabriel a stunned glance as he swept the candy off the seat next to him like Hermione had done last year. Malfoy, with a glance at the other two people in the compartment, did so.

"Harry-" Hermione closed her mouth as Gabriel put a finger over his lips in example.

"So," Gabriel said cheerfully. "How about that Exploding Snap game?"

* * *

It turned out that Malfoy wasn't very good at Exploding Snap.

He'd been very different than Gabriel remembered through the entire ride - he hadn't gone out of his way to talk to Hermione, but he hadn't insulted her either. Obviously he'd actually thought about what Gabriel had told him. Michael and Hermione seemed wary of him, but after the third card blew up in Malfoy's face they seemed to take that as recompense for all of his rudeness and simply continued on.

Malfoy - or rather, Draco, now that they actually spoke to each other, was quiet for most of it, but talked more as it became clearer that no one was going to kick him out. He liked Quidditch, apparently, and as neither Gabriel or Hermione had much experience with it besides the school games they had been to he eagerly explained how it worked to them.

"I'm definitely going to be on the team this year," he told them. "First-years aren't allowed so I couldn't last year, but now I can actually try out."

"For what position?" Gabriel asked, having given up on remembering everything that Draco had explained at practically the speed of light.

"Seeker," Draco said proudly. "It's the most dangerous position - everyone targets them."

"Why?" Hermione asked.

"Er...because they're the most important," Draco answered after a moment. "If the seeker catches the snitch then the game is over and their team gets and extra hundred and fifty points."

"A hundred and fifty?" Hermione said. "That's ridiculous."

"That's Quidditch."

* * *

They separated once they reached the carriages, Draco disappearing to be with the other Slytherins. The trio found one for themselves, a thankfully empty one, and got in hurriedly.

"What do you suppose is pulling it?" asked Gabriel as the carriage lurched, following a path that presumably led to the school.

Hermione exchanged a confused look with Michael.

"Nothing's pulling the carriage, Harry," she said after a moment. "It must be enchanted to pull itself."

Gabriel glanced again at the front of he carriage to ensure he wasn't hallucinating. The weird horse thing was still there.

"No, there's definitely something pulling it."

"Are you alright?"

"Look, just-" Gabriel took Hermione's hand and pushed it against the side of the horse thing. Hermione shrieked as, to her eyes, her hand collided with something that wasn't there.

"What?" Michael had jumped at her yell.

"There's something invisible!"

"I just told you that!" Gabriel let go and Hermione snatched her hand away.

"Hold on," Michael said. "How come you can see them, then? I don't see anything."

Gabriel shrugged. "No idea."

"What does it look like?" Hermione had quickly graduated from 'scared' to 'curious'.

"Bit like a horse, really." Gabriel looked at the creature again. "Um, it's black. Bony-looking, like it's just a skeleton with skin."

"Ew," Michael interrupted.

"It's got wings, too," Gabriel carried on. Hermione was frowning.

"I've never heard of anything like that." She cast a speculative glance at her hand. "I'll have to look it up once we get to the castle."

* * *

Gabriel watched with interest as a flood of new students enters the hall, and he remembered what it was like to be the one surrounded by older kids in black combined with all sorts of colors and to look up and see the stars instead of a ceiling, and candles floating. Even the sight of Lockhart sitting at the staff table couldn't ruin the first night back in Hogwarts, with the now-familiar banners waving from the walls.

He noticed the girl from the bookshop in the line of new students, next to someone who had such pale blonde hair it looked almost white. As the Hat was placed on the stool and its brim opened wide Gabriel thought to himself that a singing hat was still incredibly weird.

"What's so funny?" Michael hissed as Gabriel grinned to himself.

"Nothing," Gabriel whispered back, clapping as the first student was sorted into Ravenclaw. The first years are gathered at the end of the table near where Gabriel is sitting - on the first night, at least, there appears to be a set order, the upper years sitting farthest from the hat and leaving a space at the other end of the table for the new students to sit.

There were five new Ravenclaws that year, the white-blonde-haired girl one of them. She had brought a magazine with her, stuck in one of the pockets, and was reading it upside-down at the table. Her yearmates seemed confused, and none made a move to talk to her. The redheaded girl was sorted into Gryffindor, and what looked to be a colony of them [the Weasleys, Gabriel remembered] started cheering and whooping as soon as the hat announced it.

Dinner was also the same, down to the dishes of mint humbugs. Michael started a conversation about Quidditch that turned into a contest of 'my team is better than yours' between nir and everyone sitting near enough to hear, or shout down the table, sans Gabriel of course.

Prefects chivvied the first years up to the dorms, everyone else leaving before them as the two fifth-year prefects did their best to organize the new students into lines. Gabriel smirked as he passed the knocker, and its eyes gleamed as he passed it. He still hadn't returned the paper to its hiding place, and had no intention to.

They had new dorms this year - Gabriel and the others had moved to the second-year boy's dorm, and Gabriel idly wondered what the new students would think of the witchlights that were probably still hanging in his old bed.

Michale said goodnight as ne moved off to nir own dorm, which had stayed the same since last year - there were no other students who felt like joining him. Gabriel sat down on his new bed and wondered what sort of disaster the new year would bring.


	15. The Chamber of Secrets

**These chapters have been coming out fairly quickly, so I hope that doesn't affect the quality of the writing! You guys should be glad I procrastinate too much because I have like 4 different summer assignments to do and I've started exactly two of them. **

**So yeah. Homework is being put off super late. Oh well.**

**Anyway, glad you all liked the last chapter and Lockhart.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter.**

* * *

The school day started about as usual. Everyone piled downstairs for breakfast. The ceiling was nearly blocked out with owls delivering letters and things left behind in the rush to pack before school began. Schedules were handed out and students groaned as they saw which classes they had first.

Gabriel was just wondering why he was being forced to have Defense second period.

Lockhart was perhaps the most ridiculous teacher they had ever had. Gabriel's only experience came from last year, but he was still unsure how a man like that had gotten hired for the position. There were rumors that the position was cursed, right? Gabriel hoped that if there was one, it would take a hint and knock off the man before too long.

Their first class, which was mixed Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, comprised of a test which was made up entirely of questions like _What is Gilderoy Lockhart's favorite color? _and _What is Gilderoy Lockhart's secret ambition? _and continued over three sides of paper until number fifty-four, which was _When is Gilderoy Lockhart's birthday, and what would his ideal gift be?_

Gabriel was sure at least ten minutes had gone by before he managed to get his head around the fact that yes, these were legit questions that they were supposed to be answering. He glanced over at Michael, who was already working.

Sighing heavily and internally, Gabriel reached for a quill.

_Gilderoy Lockhart's favorite color is the same shade of brown as his natural hair color._

_His secret ambition is to rule the world via his fervent witch-only army of fans.  
_

_His greatest achievement is his ability to utterly bullshit his way through everything._

And so on, until...

_His birthday is June 66 and his ideal gift would be some actual talent._

When Lockhart collected the papers, he began going through them at the head of the class immediately. "Tut, tut - nearly none of you remembered that my favorite color is lilac! I say so in - er," By the way his face had adopted a strange expression Gabriel guessed that Lockhart had come to the paper he'd turned in.

Lockhart stuffed the pile out of the way and his beaming smile returned. "Now - be warned! It is my job to arm you against the foulest creatures known to wizardkind! You may find yourselves facing your worst fear in this room." He bent down behind the desk and pulled out a large, covered cage. "Know that no harm can come to you while I am here! All I ask is that you remain calm."

Gabriel, despite his utter disbelief in the man, found himself curious as to what, exactly, was in the cage. It couldn't be that, dangerous, or else it wouldn't have been allowed in.

His mind provided short flashbacks to the cerberus and the troll.

Okay, so maybe it could be a little dangerous.

"I must ask you not to scream," Lockhart said in a low, theatrically foreboding voice. "It might provoke them."

As everyone held their breath, Lockhart whipped the cover off the cage.

"Yes," he said dramatically. "_Freshly caught Cornish pixies."_

Someone at the front gave a very obvious snort of laughter.

"Yes?" Lockhart asked the student - even he couldn't have mistaken that as a scream of terror.

"Well-" whoever was talking had a very thick Irish accent. "They're not very dangerous, are they?"

"Don't be so sure!" Lockhart wagged a finger in their face, from what Gabriel could see. "Devilishly tricky little blighters!"

Gabriel took a good look at the cage. The pixies were bigger than he might have imagined them being, and electric blue with tiny, pointed faces. Their calls were so shrill it was like listening to a load of broken dog whistles, which made many in the class wince.

"Right then," said Lockhart, and Gabriel suddenly realized what he was going to do right before he did it. "Let's see what you make of them!"

And he threw open the door of the cage.

Gabriel's foresight had given him enough time to shove his things into his bag and as soon as Lockhart turned away to open the door he'd sprinted for the classroom entrance. Even so, he had to surrender his bag to whatever caught hold of it to get out in time, running down the hallways with his robes flapping behind him.

From what he could hear of the classroom behind him, things were not going so well. This was confirmed at lunch afterwards, when a sullen Michael sat down next to him with a ripped sweater and Gabriel's bag as well as nir own.

"Thanks a lot for the warning," was all ne said.

"I have absolutely no regrets," said Gabriel, taking his bag back.

"You could have _said _something."

"I barely had time to get myself out of there!"

"How'd you know what he was going to do, anyway?"

"He's an idiot who thinks he can defend himself." Gabriel piled some food onto his plate. "Wasn't that big of a stretch."

Michael still looked put out. "Look, what do you want me to do? Fix your sweater?"

"D'you know a spell for that?"

"I do. Hermione showed me."

"Fine."

Gabriel watched as the spell knit the fibers of the sweater back into place. "There, happy?"

"No."

"Oh, come on!"

* * *

Gabriel had to spend quite a lot of time dodging Lockhart, who seemed to think that he wanted advice on how to properly be famous. Which he did not. How did Lockhart even have this much free time? Wasn't he a teacher? Didn't he have any other classes to terrorize?

Another person he had to avoid was a Gryffindor first year - C something, Gabriel thought his name was. The boy carried around a camera everywhere and did his best to snap photos of Gabriel, for whom he seemed to have developed some sort of hero-worship.

Gabriel still wondered what 'terrible plot' was supposedly being put in action. Nothing seemed particularly out of place. No one had been attacked yet. The Cerberus was gone [Gabriel had checked]. The only remotely dangerous thing in the school was the Venomous Tentacula in Greenhouse Three.

But Hogwarts being Hogwarts, the giant, mazelike, school of magic that it was, that didn't last long.

It was in late September that the first sign of something wrong made itself apparent. Gabriel was walking with Hermione down a corridor, just chatting about class, and Gabriel was ignoring Hermione ribbing into him about how he hadn't started his Herbology homework yet when something else spoke.

It was an ice-cold voice, with a hint of strangeness about it, like an unfamiliar accent, and if Gabriel had been anything but an archangel he might have been frightened.

_Come... come to me... let me rip you... let me tear you...let me kill!_

He spun around, trying to figure out where it had come from. Hermione looked at him in bemusement.

"Harry, what are you doing?"

"Didn't you hear that?" Gabriel glanced up at the ceiling. Had it come from the next floor?

"Hear _what_?"

Gabriel turned to her. "Are you telling me that you didn't hear the incredibly threatening voice talking from right next to us?"

"Harry, no one said anything." Hermione looked worried now. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm..." Utterly bewildered was what he was. Gabriel took one last glance around. Was this related to whatever had been pulling the carriages? He was hearing and seeing all sorts of things that no one else could this year.

"Let's just go," Hermione suggested.

"Sure." Gabriel agreed, eager to leave the corridor behind until he found out more about what had spoken.

* * *

Hermione came up to him and Michael during a study period a few days later. October had dawned bright and chilly on the castle, and already warming charms were necessary to get comfortably through the corridors. People were already looking forward to Halloween, and some of the muggleborns were talking about arranging a costume party.

Hermione looked nervous as she walked up. She was holding a copy of _Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them,_ its worn state indicating that it was from the library.

"Harry..." now she looked distinctly uncomfortable as well. Michael glanced up at her as well, both he and Gabriel curious as to what she was here about.

"I looked up what might be pulling the carriages, based on your description," she told Gabriel, sitting down. "I found this, actually, and I think I might know what it is."

"What?" Michael prompted, as Hermione paused.

"Thestrals," she said. "I asked the groundskeeper, Hagrid, and apparently Hogwarts has got a whole herd of them in the Forest. But, um..." Hermione trailed off, biting her lip.

"Yes?" Gabriel asked.

"They can only be seen by those who have seen death," she blurted out.

Oh.

Now Michael was looking at Gabriel oddly too. Gabriel felt a spasm of irritation - of course he'd sen death, he was at least three millenia old, not to mention meeting the Horseman himself - but that died out when he reminded himself that he was supposed to be twelve.

He affected a solemn look. "Oh."

Obviously no one was willing to ask the question, so Gabriel faked embarrassment and turned back to the homework he'd discarded when he noticed Hermione coming towards them. They remained quiet until the end of the study period, and while it was never brought up in conversation Gabriel spent several days curiously trying to remember when he'd have first been able to see them, before giving up and deciding it must have been sometime before the invention of the calendar.

* * *

Gabriel was entering the castle when he encountered Sir Nick. He'd been outside wandering around the edge of the lake - purely in curiosity, as it had occurred to Gabriel that there could be some sort of magical, aquatic life - when torrential downpour had started. He'd barely managed to get inside before it got too heavy, and even so he was soaked and his shoes were caked in mud.

"Oh-" The ghost stopped as he came around the corner, obviously surprised to see Gabriel.

"I don't suppose you remember a cleaning spell from your lifetime," Gabriel said dryly.

"Unfortunately, no," Nick said. He was holding some sort of transparent ghost envelope in his hands. Gabriel wasn't aware that ghosts sent mail.

"What's that?" He asked, pointing and contemplating whether he should really use his Grace to dry himself off.

"Oh? Er, it's nothing." Nick adjusted the collar which hid his nearly-severed neck in place. "Just a bit of correspondence."

"I wasn't aware ghosts could do that." Gabriel gave into temptation and darted a quick look around to make sure no one other than Nick was watching before snapping his fingers. The water evaporated off into a cloud of steam and the mud on his shoes vanished.

"We can," said Nick, watching in fascination, "Though it isn't very common. Takes a lot out of us."

"Who's it from, then?"

Nick went a darker shade of silver. "No one important," he grumbled. "Just that miserable...I mean," He continued louder, unfolding the insubstantial envelope, "You would think, that being hit forty-five times in the neck with a blunt axe would make me qualify, but no!"

"Qualify?" The ghosts here had much more interesting...er...afterlives than the ones Gabriel had known of previously. He was sure that the kind he was used to didn't do anything like this.

"For the Headless Hunt!" Nick burst out. "Half an inch of skin and sinew holding my head on but no, that's not good enough for Sir Properly-Decapitated Podmore!"

"For _who?"_

Nick seemed to suddenly remember who he was talking to. "But I'm sure you're not interested," he said hurriedly. "Didn't mean to unload on you like that. I - I think I'll be going." Nick swept off through a wall.

"Who the hell is named Properly-Decapitated?"

* * *

Halloween arrived with a bang. Gabriel made sure to bring his wand to the table, fully aware of the troll disaster of last year. The Hall had been decorated more festively than he imagined, with the candles charmed to light up black and orange, and huge carved pumpkins hovering among them. Live black bats fluttered here and there around the ceiling, and it made Gabriel almost regretful that he hadn't come last year. The candy as well was a huge benefit, and it was a good thing that Hermione was in a different House or she'd have had an aneurysm for sure at how much of it Gabriel ate.

"At least you seem to like Halloween," Michael said, amused at Gabriel's enthusiasm for the treats.

"I like candy," Gabriel corrected nir, grinning around the lollipop in his mouth.

"Doesn't everyone?" Michael retorted, leaning over to grab one for nemself, and Gabriel nodded in agreement and glanced up again as a colony of bats flew overhead, chittering.

Halloween didn't hold a lot of Gabriel's good memories, but it certainly didn't hold any bad ones - he'd sometimes gone out to celebrate the Pagan holiday, picking at whatever the locals left out for those they believed would come by. He hadn't done this often, though - Halloween was a spirit's holiday, not one to honor pagan gods.

"What do you think's going to happen this year?" Gabriel asked Michael over the din of chatter around them."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, last year a troll broke in, right? Maybe something happens here every Halloween."

"Let's hope not." Michael said. "I'd hate for this to be interrupted."

"Seconded." Gabriel eyed a platter of Chocolate Frogs.

He had to forcefully remind himself of the possible limits while in his vessel, but Gabriel still stuffed himself on the candy with complete disregard for the food he'd eaten earlier. A sensation in the area of his stomach reminded him that he could still get full, but luckily this was near the end of the feast when everything was petering out and the roar of conversation had dulled to a light murmur.

Walking out of the Great Hall, they had to take the same route as the Slytherins for part of the way. Gabriel flashed a grin at Draco as he passed, who looked startled, and then nearly tripped Gabriel as the entire column of students came to a halt.

"What's going on?" Someone shouted from the back, and Gabriel had to wriggle his way through the crowd to a spot in the front. He stopped behind some third-years, craning over their shoulders to see what was going on and cursing his height - or lack of it.

Something furry-looking was hanging from a torch bracket, but that wasn't what had stopped the students. Most likely it was the message painted just above the bracket in something that looked eerily similar to blood.

THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED

ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE

_Shit, _Gabriel thought to himself. _I guess the Halloween bad luck lasted anyway._

He lowered his eyes to the furry thing again and realized what it was. It was the caretaker's cat, Ms. Something, and she was tied by her tail to the bracket with eyes wide at some long-gone horror. She was stiff, as if some taxidermist had come along and decided to practice their skill on her.

No one spoke. Draco and Michael were both standing behind Gabriel, each having pushed their way up to the front as well, but had varying reactions. Michael looked mildly sick, as if ne too had realized what the cat was. Draco looked torn between horror and something akin to delight - Gabriel frowned at him as he noticed this, which made Draco turn away quickly as soon as he realized he was being watched. The Slytherin ducked back through the crowd and vanished among the other students.

"What's going on here?"

Someone called out from behind the students, and Gabriel recognized the voice as belonging to the Headmaster. The students parted before him like the Red Sea to let him and the other teachers through, all of whom froze at the sight which awaited them. In seconds Dumbledore had swept up to the torch bracket and detached the cat.

"Someone alert Mr. Filch," he said quietly, Gabriel just barely picking the words up. Lockhart stepped forward.

"My office is nearest, headmaster," he said eagerly. "Just upstairs - please feel free -"

"Thank you, Gilderoy," said Dumbledore, and he and the other teachers walked away again. McGonagall lingered for a moment.

"Continue up to your dorms," she called, her voice echoing around the hallway with the authority of a thousand professors. The students reluctantly started moving again, and as Ravenclaw broke off from Slytherin Gabriel ignored the murmurs and speculations tossed around him and glanced back to try anf get another look at Draco. The strange look in the boy's eyes was bothering him, a little wiggle in the back of his mind that Gabriel couldn't ignore.

Back in the dorms, Gabriel abandoned getting ready for bed in favor of climbing straight in and shutting the curtains around him with a swish in the now-familiar move to gain some privacy in a room shared with three other boys. He sat back against the headboard and wondered if this was what Dobby meant when he talked about 'great danger' at Hogwarts this year.

One thought was running on repeat through his head. _What the hell is the chamber of secrets?_

* * *

**Tada! Done for today. I just uploaded three chapters in one day. I should be doing other things. You, my reviewing friends, are very lucky.**

**Anyway. Read and review please, all that jazz, let's hope I actually get something done tomorrow!**


	16. Slytherin's Secret

**So many chapters! I should really be working on my writing camp story, seeing as this week is my last to do so before it gets 'published'. Anyway, this is not the story I should be writing right now, but details, details.  
**

**Binns's story about the chamber is, of course, shamelessly copied from the book, as are several other smaller parts. Why is Dobby so hard to write? I have no idea how he talks.  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Supernatural.**

* * *

Hermione slammed down her books at the table next morning. Michael jumped, and it was only Gabriel's years of experience in keeping himself neutral that prevented him from doing the same.

"_All _of the copies of Hogwarts, A History have been taken out of the library!" She said, scowling slightly. "_And _there's a two-week waiting list."

"Don't you have your own copy?" Gabriel asked, scrawling another sentence onto a History of Magic essay that he was completely making up, much like last year's written exam.

"Yes, but I had to leave it at home," Hermione sighed. "It wouldn't fit in my trunk with all the Lockhart books."

"Why do you need it so badly?"

"Honestly, Michael!" Hermione exclaimed, whirling around on the Ravenclaw. "The same reason everyone else wants it! To read up on the legend of the Chamber of Secrets!"

Gabriel frowned. Now that she mentioned it, he vaguely remembered reading about the place last year when he'd been looking for a clue as to the whereabouts of Muriel's secret room.

"What is it?" Michael asked.

"I don't remember," said Hermione in frustration. "That's the thing. I know I've read about it somewhere..." She suddenly caught a glimpse of Gabriel's paper. "How long is that?"

"Uh-" Bewildered, Gabriel borrowed Michael's measuring tape and stretched his parchment out. "Two feet?"

"Harry! We're suppose to have three feet! And History of Magic is next!"

"You've got History of Magic next," Gabriel corrected her. "I've got it first thing tomorrow."

"You've still only done two feet?" Michael looked surprised as well. "I thought you were working on the homework Snape gave us."

"The what?"

Hermione looked torn between a desire to help Gabriel and a desire to beat him over the head with the thickest textbook within reach.

* * *

History of Magic was as boring as usual, Binns droning on in front of the class. Gabriel's presence didn't even phase him - he just kept talking as the students draped themselves artfully over desks, usually at least half-asleep.

This class, though, something was different.

Another Ravenclaw - Mandy something - was raising her hand. Binns didn't seem to notice, but eventually when most of the class was looking at her rather than listening it seemed to catch his attention. He stopped in the middle of a fatally boring lecture on the International something of the year who cares.

"Yes, Miss Brandywine?"

"I was wondering if you knew anything about the chamber of secrets," she said boldly.

That certainly got everyone's attention. They all started looking between her and Binns, Gabriel among them. He was _sure _he'd read about the place before, but details other than the fact that it was a secret room of Slytherin's escaped him.

Binns actually looked slightly irritated. "The Chamber of Secrets is a legend," he informed them stiffly. "I deal with History of Magic, not myths but facts." He began to go back to the lecture when Mandy raised her hand again.

"Please, sir - don't legends always have a certain basis in fact?"

Binns looked about to refuse her, when he looked around properly and saw that he had the entire class's attention for once. "Very well," he said. "The Chamber of... let me see..."

"You all know, of course, that Hogwarts was founded over a thousand years ago - the exact date is uncertain - by the four greatest witches and wizards of the age," _And one angel, _Gabriel thought to himself.

"The four school houses are named after them - Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin. They built this castle together, far from prying Muggle eyes, for it was an age when magic was feared by the common people, and witches and wizards suffered much persecution.

"For a few years, the Founders worked in harmony together, seeking out youngsters who showed signs of magic and bringing them to the castle to be educated. But then disagreements sprang up between them. A rift began to grow between Slytherin and the others. Slytherin wished to be more _selective _about the students admitted to Hogwarts. He believed that magical learning should be kept within all-magic families. He disliked taking students of Muggle parentage, believing them to be untrustworthy. After a while, there was a serious argument on the subject between Slytherin and Gryffindor, and Slytherin left the school.

"Reliable sources tell us this much, but these honest facts have been obscured by the fanciful legend of the Chamber of Secrets. The story goes that Slytherin built a hidden chamber in the castle-" _Of course he did, they all did. _"-Of which the other Founders knew nothing.

"Slytherin, according to the legend, sealed the Chamber of Secrets so that none would be able to open it until his own true heir arrived at the school. The heir alone would be able to unseal the Chamber of Secrets, unleash the horror within, and use it to purge the school of all those who were unworthy to study magic."

Binns carried on, but Gabriel ignored him, turning the story over in his mind. Slytherin had, no doubt, built a secret chamber - Muriel's letter attested to that. The 'monster' might have been left as some sort of guard originally, and the bit about only the heir being able to get in made sense. Even his bias against Muggelborns was understandable when you looked at it from a historical viewpoint.

The wizards had been persecuted by the non-magicals - obviously, any magical child from Muggle parents would willingly tell their parents about the school and where it was, having been taught to believe that magic was the devil's work. Either Slytherin was rather paranoid, or he was just an asshole.

Without any method of knowing for sure save actually going back in time [and even he couldn't go back that far on his own] Gabriel decided to leave that particular debate for another time, and instead concentrate on the Chamber.

He knew it existed, but a warning he remembered from Muriel's letter distracted him.

'_The other Founder's halls are their own secrets, and unless you are decreed worthy of their House leave those secrets be until the right one comes along.'_

He might have been worried about that, had his own hasty intervention not been the only thing keeping him from being Sorted into Slytherin. Gabriel figured that that counted as being 'decreed worthy'.

Now all that was left was to find the place.

And he was running on even fewer clues than last time.

Was this going to be a theme?

* * *

"D'you really think there's a Chamber of Secrets?" Michael asked as ne and Gabriel went on to their next class, which was Transfiguration.

"Why not?" Gabriel shrugged. "Certainly plenty of places it could be. It's not like anyone's mapped out the school."

"I suppose," Michael said. "It's a bit far fetched, though. I mean, a secret chamber with a monster in it that only one person can release? Sounds like something out of one of the Muggle books my mum's always reading."

They turned the corner and found themselves in the corridor where the message had been written. It was still there, dark red as ever - which made Gabriel inclined to think it was paint, as blood would have turned brown by now - but much less ominous now that pale sunlight was streaming onto it through a window.

Michael kept nir eyes on it as they walked past. "I wonder who did it, though," ne said. "Must have been one of the students - I can't imagine the teachers doing anything like this."

"I think everyone's blaming the Slytherins, honestly," remarked Gabriel. "Bit stupid, though. Who says the heir is in that house?"

"Where else would they be?" Michael was looking at him in surprise.

"Come on," said Gabriel. "Even to a first-year it's obvious that no one likes the Slytherins." He remembered his own Sorting. "Anyone with a bit of actual cunning would get themselves Sorted into a different House. And even if they're descended from Slytherin that's no guarantee that they're cunning at all, or even ambitious."

Michael's expression had changed to one of thoughtfulness. "I didn't think of that."

"I might be the only one who has."

* * *

Gabriel refrained from attending the first quidditch game of the season - Gryffindor versus Slytherin - on the grounds that he didn't care and that it was miserable outside. Michael rolled nir eyes at that, but Hermione was perfectly willing to stay in and nag Gabriel about the homework he hadn't yet finished.

"Oh, give it a break just once, Hermione," Gabriel complained, wishing that Draco was still inside the school so he could finally ask him about his happiness on Halloween. "We've got an entire free period!"

"And you've got an entire Potions essay to write," she said severely.

"I can do that later!"

"You've been saying that all week!"

Eventually Gabriel managed to escape to the library and pretend he was studying. He spend all of three minutes in there before heading for the east hall.

Maybe Muriel had written down the locations of these 'secret rooms'.

There was no way it was going to be that easy, though.

The door creaked open and Gabriel once again slid down the railing before reaching the bottom. He remembered where the door into the room was, and it creaked open at his touch, his faded signature still visible on the parchment. The room was exactly as he had remembered it.

"Aright," Gabriel spoke into the dusty air. "Let's see what this place has to say about old Slytherin."

As soon as he spoke, Gabriel was forced to duck - several volumes had plucked themselves off the shelf and come sailing towards him. They landed on the floor with dusty thumps, and as Gabriel turned around in shock he saw that neither had titles.

"Some sort of retrieval system?" He mused, picking up all three books and looking around for a table. Gabriel settled for clearing the desk off carefully instead when none were in sight, removing the journal and placing it carefully on top of some stacked parchment. "Handy. Now, what do we have here..."

The first book was a handwritten version of what amounted to an attendance log of students and staff.

"This is not helpful," grumbled Gabriel, putting it aside. It jumped out of his hands and flew back to the shelf.

The second book he tried was a little more helpful, but it was just a mix of Binn's story and what Muriel had written; each of the Founders had left their own room behind with some sort of guardian, and it was rumored that Slytherin had done a little bit more than that.

"I already know this," Gabriel groaned as he closed that one too. "Is there anything in here that _isn't _a repetition of something I've already heard?" Luckily, none of the books jumped off the shelf at that.

The third book was the thickest yet, and Gabriel didn't fancy flipping through it to try and find where it mentioned Slytherin. "Is there anything in here about the other secret rooms?" He asked aloud. Nothing moved.

"Of course." Gabriel shoved the chair back irritably, opening the book to a random page. "I suppose I'll have to track down the Slytherin common room and see if whatever guards it has got anything."

"Well, at least if I find Draco I can get two birds with one stone." Gabriel glanced down at the book in irritation when something caught his eye.

"Hold on, Slytherin could speak to snakes?"

* * *

Gabriel didn't bother trying to find him immediately, since obviously Draco was playing in the Quidditch game, and instead explored the room a little more. Later, once the game had ended, his attempt started.

It wasn't like Gabriel knew the Slytherin timetable and he did have his own classes but come on, it had to be easier than this! There was a time when he could have charmed a second-year out of her schedule and gotten the information an an hour later. Gabriel blamed it on being trapped in a twelve-year-old body. He was also quite distracted with what he'd learned about Parseltounge, and wondering why his vessel of all people possessed the talent.

Something else happened, however, that took his mind completely off Malfoy and snake-language.

Gabriel woke up in the middle of the night because something small was standing on him.

"What the- you!" It was Dobby. Gabriel had to struggle to keep his voice down. "What are you doing here?"

The house elf was wide eyed. "Harry Potter sir came back to school...Dobby warned him not to..."

"Yes, I came back here, you _insane_ creature. What the hell are you doing here?" Gabriel hissed.

Dobby didn't answer, instead choosing to shift silently on the bed.

"You were going to do something to try and convince me to leave, weren't you?"

"Dobby is sorry," the house elf said quietly.

"I don't suppose you'd like to tell me why you want me sent back so badly?"

"Aah," the house elf almost wailed, and Gabriel hurried to shush him. "If only Harry Potter knew! How great was the day when You-Know-Who was defeated! How things improved so much for us when the darkness was gone! And now at Hogwarts, terrible things are to happen, or perhaps happening already, and Dobby cannot let Harry Potter stay here when history is repeating itself and the chamber of secrets is open once more."

Gabriel's hand locked in an iron grip around Dobby's arm. "Open once more?" Gabriel repeated. "You're saying that this has happened before?"

"Harry Potter must not meddle in this," the house elf muttered, trying vainly to free his arm and looking panicked, as if he'd said something he shouldn't have. "Harry Potter must go home where he is safe-"

"Harry?" Someone sleepily muttered. The house elf froze, and then vanished with a pop.

"What?" Gabriel said back, trying to keep a lid on his irritation.

"I thought I heard you talking."

"To who?" Gabriel asked dryly. "Go back to sleep, you're dreaming."

There was no more talking and Gabriel stared angrily at the spot where Dobby had disappeared, wondering who had opened it the first time.

* * *

Michael was enthralled when Gabriel told nir what had happened last night. "It's been opened before?"

"Apparently."

"When?"

"I don't know!" Gabriel threw his hands up. "He just said 'history is repeating itself' and then he left before I could ask anything else."

"What do you think's in the chamber anyway?" Michael mused.

"No idea." Gabriel glanced back down at the book he was supposed to be reading and wondered if Hermione would actually murder him if he left it for later. "Suppose some sort of snake thing, that being the crest and all."

"Did you hear what happened?" Hermione sat down next to them, interrupting their conversation. Gabriel hadn't heard her coming.

"What?" Michael looked bewildered.

"Someone else has been petrified!"

"They've been what?" Gabriel asked blankly.

"Petrified," Hermione repeated. "Like Filch's cat! On Halloween!"

Michael glanced at Gabriel with slight horror in nir eyes. "A person?"

"Someone in Gryffindor." Hermione informed them. "I think it was a first-year - you know, that kid who's always going around with a camera."

"Oh, him." Gabriel glanced over at the Gryffindor table - sure enough, there was no sign of the usual flash of someone taking pictures. Gabriel wondered what the kid had done to deserved getting petrified.

The news of the attack, though, spread through Hogwarts more quickly than Gabriel had imagined possible. Rumors and other ridiculous suspicions were rife, thickening the air and making students travel in small groups as opposed to on their own.

Hidden from the teachers, a roaring trade in talismans and other sorts of protective charms sprung up, and Gabriel had to stop Michael from buying a strange purple crystal which possessed absolutely no power and looked like something from a hippie Muggle shop.

"You're a half-blood," Gabriel said scathingly as he dragged Michael away, "Not a Muggleborn! For d-Pete's sake, what did you want that for?"

"It's just in case," Michael protested halfheartedly.

"Just in case of what, you get mistaken for being 'unworthy'?"

"Maybe!"

"You're an idiot, Michael." Gabriel said bluntly. "And you're not going to be attacked." _Not as long as I'm around._

* * *

Christmas, Gabriel decided, would be the perfect time to corner Draco. He'd seen the Slytherin's name on the list when he signed up to stay over the holidays like he'd done last year. Hermione would be going home again, and this year Michael would as well - something they both looked guilty about until Gabriel told them to stop worrying about it. After that, they only looked guilty when they thought he wasn't looking.

Hermione almost wrote home to ask if she could stay over the holidays, but when Gabriel asked her if she really wanted to spend time with her friend over having Christmas with her parents, she reluctantly agreed with his point. Besides, in the meantime until the holiday started, Christmas was pulled from their minds by news.

"A duelling club?"

Michael had told them the news at breakfast, since Gabriel hadn't noticed it when he came down. Hermione seemed to know already, but she listened patiently as Michael spoke.

"D'you reckon Slytherin's monster can duel?" He said disbelievingly. "Still, it might be worth a shot-"

"Not if Lockhart's teaching," Gabriel muttered, which made Hermione look at him disapprovingly.

"I don't get why you-"

"Come off it, Hermione, the first quiz we got in class was on his _favorite color."_

Gabriel watched in mixed amusement and surprise that Hermione actually liked the guy as Hermione blushed slightly and muttered something under her breath.

"Let's just go see what this Duelling club is," she said irritably.

It turned out to be an absolute mess.

Lockhart was teaching it, and Gabriel almost left there and then, except for the grip Michael had on his arm to stop him from doing exactly that.

"Come on, let go."

"No way. I'm gonna suffer through him and so are you. We might actually learn something."

"From _him_?"

Snape had climbed up onto the stage as well, lip curled in his customary sneer.

"Let's just hope they finish each other off," Gabriel whispered to Michael.

Snape looked about ready to do so; Gabriel got the feeling he disliked Lockhart as much as the rest of them. He and Lockhart were holding their wands like swords in front of them, and Lockhart was going on some ramble about proper duel etiquette, and how they would cast non-lethal spells only.

Gabriel snorted - rules and regulations were for court knights who could barely hold their own in a real fight where their opponent wouldn't play by the rules. Gabriel had once won a small bit of land like that once, but he hadn't been able to enjoy it as the knight he'd beaten had promptly burnt it down in a fit of anger at how he'd lost the fight. It had been rather rude of him. Gabriel shook himself out of his thoughts as Snape and Lockhart simultaneously cast spells at each other.

Lockhart was blasted off his feet. He went sailing backwards off the stage and hit the wall hard, sliding down into the crowd. Several people cheered. Hermione was on tiptoes, trying to see if he was alright.

Unfortunately Lockhart appeared to be perfectly fine, staggering to his feet after a few seconds and saying some nonsense about how he knew exactly what Snape was going to do.

"Enough demonstrating!" He eventually called out. "I'm going to come around and put you all into pairs...Professor Snape, if you'd like to help me..."

Snape looked as though helping Lockhart was the last thing on his mind, but he moved into the crowd anyway. Gabriel partnered with Michael, and they both waited around for everyone else to get sorted into pairs. Snape swept by and eyed them critically, but he didn't say anything.

"Face your partners!" Lockhart called out. "And...bow!"

Michael actually bowed slightly, but Gabriel just rolled his eyes and stayed exactly where he was. Not that he was trying to be rude to Michael, but the idea of actually listening to Lockhart rubbed him the wrong way.

"Wands at the ready! When I count to three, cast your charms to disarm your opponent-" _You haven't taught us anything dickwad- _"-Only to disarm them! Ready? Three - two - one-"

Absolute chaos would probably be the best word to describe what had happened. Obviously, disarming charms were not the only spells being used. Michael had probably used one, but Gabriel couldn't hear what he'd said over the collective shout and sidestepped it, _ooh_ing in sympathy as it hit whoever was behind him and their wand went spinning out of their hand.

Someone had conjured a lot of green smoke, which hung hazily over the scene. Hermione had ducked away from her partner, who was attempting to put the Gryffindor in a headlock. Someone had picked up their partner and was apologizing for the result of whatever spell had been used.

"Well this all looks wonderful," said Gabriel sarcastically as he watched someone be cursed with uncontrollable dancing. "Really, a wonderful idea. Remind me why I didn't leave again? _Oh yeah." _He cast a meaningful look at Michael, who was ignoring him.

"Enough!" Lockhart shouted. Snape, standing on the other side of the room with a truly impressive sneer, was far more effective at making everyone quiet down. "Er - perhaps a practice demonstration duel would be better? Longbottom, yes-"

"That would be a bad idea," said Snape silkily. "You'll be sending whatever's left of his opponent to the hospital wing. Longbottom has a tendency to...mangle his work."

Gabriel thought this was rather unfair, as Snape was a Potions teacher and most likely had never seen 'Longbottom' perform a spell. Snape continued on, unaware of the mental workings of the person standing three feet from him. "How about Malfoy, and...Potter?"

Great.

"Excellent," said Lockhart, sounding relieved, and gesturing for Gabriel to step into the center of the room. The students around them quickly backed away to make room, and Gabriel found himself facing Draco across an empty stretch of stone.

Lockhart tried to give him some advice and instead dropped his wand, causing snickers to come from the Slytherin side of the room. Gabriel ignored him, instead watching Draco with a slight frown.

Snape swept closer to Draco and whispered something in his ear, smirking slightly as he backed away. Strangely enough, Draco wasn't smirking.

"Three - two - one - go!"

"_Expelliarmus!" _Draco shouted, and again Gabriel neatly stepped out of the way. The spell hit Lockhart who, for the second time today, was sent reeling backwards.

Gabriel flicked the spell off his own wand while everyone was distracted with Lockhart, and hit Draco unawares. The boy watched with an expression of incredulity as Gabriel neatly caught his wand, pocketing both of them.

"You know, I think I win."

"Return Mr. Malfoy's wand, Potter," Snape said tightly, sending a look at Draco. Gabriel handed over the polished stick willingly.

"This is a duel," Draco said as he came closer to retrieve it. "You're supposed to play by the rules!"

"And where did following the rules get you?" asked Gabriel lightly. "By the way," he lowered his voice. "Could we talk later?"

Draco looked confused. "Talk?"

"Yes. Kind of like what we're doing now, minus the audience. Outside the Great Hall, over break, what do you say?" Gabriel grinned and left before Draco could reply. He had a feeling the Slytherin would show up.

* * *

Gabriel was walking back up to Ravenclaw tower to get his books for the next class - he'd forgotten to bring them to the period before - when he heard the same hissing voice from ages ago, echoing in the walls.

_Let me rip...tear..._

Gabriel jumped ever so slightly and glanced around hurriedly, but there was nothing in sight. The voice began to fade away, like it was going farther from him, and as Gabriel tried to follow it he eventually came around a corner and saw the strangest sight.

Maybe strange wasn't the right word.

Slightly horrifying would have been better.

A Hufflepuff boy was lying on the floor, rigid, a look of shock frozen on his face. He was positioned oddly, as if he'd been standing when he was frozen and then been pushed over backwards. But it was the figure of Nearly Headless Nick, who was floating motionlessly in front of him, that actually spooked Gabriel a bit.

The ghost was no longer silvery but black and smokelike, reminding Gabriel unpleasantly of a demon. His head was listing to one side and he wore a look of shock identical to the boy's.

Gabriel stood there frozen for several seconds before approaching cautiously. Nick he gave a wide berth, but he poked the boy to see what had happened up close. His skin was inflexible, as if he were merely very realistically painted wood or stone. Glancing to the side as movement caught his eye, Gabriel saw a long line of spiders fleeing the scene.

As Gabriel stood there looking over the scene critically, Peeves came bursting out of one of the side doors. He froze, just like Gabriel had, upon seeing the scene.

"Don't you dare go around telling people I'm responsible for this," said Gabriel quickly. That would have been the last thing he needed. Peeves nodded quickly, staring at Nick with an expression of horror.

"Get a teacher or something," Gabriel told him. "And I was never here, understand?" He turned around and hightailed it around the corner, opting to go the long way round to Ravenclaw tower as Peeves went shooting off, shouting after a few minutes that there had been another attack. Gabriel heard the distant sounds of a stampede of feet on floors as everyone in the classrooms nearby no doubt came out to look.

As Gabriel walked, he wondered _What could be so powerful as to Petrify a ghost?_

* * *

The double attack so shortly before the holidays caused a near stampede to book seats on the Hogwarts express back to London. Practically no one was left in the castle - besides Gabriel, it was looking like Draco and his cronies would be the only ones there for the two weeks vacation.

The first day of vacation, after bidding goodbye to a wholly reluctant Michael and Hermione, Gabriel leaned against the threshold of the entrance to the Great Hall and waited.

He was not disappointed.

"You didn't even give me a date," said Draco irritably as he walked closer. "How was I supposed to know you meant today?"

"You're here, aren't you?" asked Gabriel with a small smile.

"And that's another thing," Draco said, stopping a few feet away. "Why did you want to talk so badly?"

"What else could it be about?" Gabriel stood up straight, gesturing with his hands for 'spooky' effects. "The Chamber of Secrets."

He could practically see Draco's interest sharpen. "What about it?"

"Come on," Gabriel told him, rolling his eyes. "We both know that you were thrilled the night it opened."

Draco seemed to guess his thoughts. "Are you implying that you think I'm the Heir?" he asked, astonished.

"I'm implying nothing."

"I'm not," Draco said sharply. "And I wasn't-"

"Happy? No, I believe I said thrilled." Gabriel interrupted dryly. "And I thought you were working on this hating Muggleborns thing."

Draco faltered momentarily. "I can't help it-" he began angrily.

"Of course you can." Gabriel snapped back at him. "You just don't want to disappoint your dad. That, and you've been told your entire life to think that. I get it."

"How do you know that?"

"Like I can't just guess?" It was incredibly obvious, to Gabriel at least. "Besides, I met your dad, remember? I've definitely heard of him." Gabriel had looked up old news articles in the library out of curiosity, and while he was polite enough not to say it to Draco's face, he seriously doubted that the boy's father had actually been under the Imperious curse as a Death Eater.

Draco was silent for a few moments. "Is that all you wanted, then?"

"Pretty much." Gabriel could tell that he'd been telling the truth. "What did you want, and early Christmas present?" Crap, he still had to buy things for Michael and Hermione.

Draco looked unsure how to respond. "Er-"

"See you, Draco." He saw Draco start at being called by his first name, but Gabriel was already turning and strolling away. Draco made no move to call him back, and as Gabriel ducked around the corner he quickly pulled his invisibility cloak out of his magically expanded pocket and what an excellent gamble that particular spell had been. Pulling it on quickly, Gabriel glanced around the corner again to see Draco heading to the other side of the hall.

Gabriel walked quickly to catch up. If Draco was going back to the Slytherin dorms, then they were much deeper in the castle than Gabriel had expected. He kept going down to the dungeon level, making Gabriel thankful that he'd stopped the hat from Sorting him into Slytherin, and through a maze of hallways until he came to an apparently blank wall.

"Pure-blood," he told the wall, and Gabriel raised his eyebrows at what was obviously a password. There was a carved snake on the wall which Gabriel hadn't noticed before and its eyes lit up green, the wall folding itself out of the way in a manner reminiscent of the entrance to Diagon Alley.

Draco walked in. Gabriel waited for the entrance to close before he whipped the cloak off, stuffing it back in his pocket as he approached the carved snake.

"Hel-_lo_," he said conversationally to no one in particular. "Let's see what we've got here...what makes you tick, eh? Where's your secret message?" Gabriel's eyes scanned the carving, but no imperfections that would suggest a hidey-hole could be found - of course, the same could be said of the eagle door knocker on the Ravenclaw entrance.

"It was Enochian for Ravenclaw," Gabriel mused, "So maybe that snake-language would work?" Rare languages did seem to be a theme.

Gabriel looked up at the snake and tried to pretend it was a real one. "Have you got a message?" It didn't work, probably because the words came out as English.

Gabriel shook his head and focused on the snake again, until he could practically see it moving. "Have you got a message?" He repeated, except this time what came out was a series of odd hisses that he wasn't fully aware of making, but this was no time to be taking apart the intricacies of Parseltounge. In any case, it still didn't work.

"Salazar Slytherin?" That didn't work either. "Come on, open up!"

That yielded something. Like the eagle, the snake spat out a bit of parchment at him. Gabriel swiftly pocketed it and wrapped himself in the cloak again until he got back up to Ravenclaw Tower. It wouldn't do to be caught with something like this in his pocket, and anyways Lockhart was still wandering the castle - _he _hadn't gone home for Christmas.

What a shame. Gabriel could have used some peace and quiet.

* * *

**This chapter is 5,398 words long you guys had better appreciate this monstrosity.**

**Read and review, let me know what you think!**


	17. Disasters and Petrifications

**Not a whole lot of feedback on the new chapter yet but hey, I'm writing this pretty soon after I put it up. Anyway, new chapter! Yay! I hope you guys aren't too bored with the 'leave behind a letter with a clue' plotline because there will probably be more.**

**Funny story: As I was writing this, my computer decided to auto-update firefox and decide that it was going to be the only browser on the only computer I constantly access that wouldn't let me go on fanfiction.**

**I am now using Google Chrome.**

**But that's enough of that. Let's get this show on the road!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter**

* * *

Slytherin, as it turned out, was much less imaginative than Muriel had been, and that was saying something considering Muriel was an angel.

Or maybe Muriel just cared more about leaving a message.

Either way, the parchment the snake had given him was filled not with words or even proper sentences, at least.

This is how the parchment read in all of its three-inch-long glory:

TTHHEESETNUTDRYATNOCTEHTEHWEESSNTAFKAERGTUHAERSDTSFIRTOXM

That was completely unhelpful.

Gabriel had spent ages trying to figure out this code, only taking a break to figure out what to get Michael and Hermione as presents - For Hermione, he just made a copy of The Unfinished Tales [which he'd brought to Hogwarts] while Michael ended up with a small Quidditch poster which Gabriel had bought off a Hufflepuff girl several years older than him. Gabriel was fairly sure that it was the team Michael liked, except he'd never paid attention during Quidditch discussions so he couldn't be sure.

Christmas came earlier than he'd realized it would be, and after hurriedly sending off the presents far too late for them to get there in time Gabriel was pleasantly surprised the next morning to find a pile of presents instead of just two or three.

Hermione had once again given him a book [this time it was on runes, with a note saying to look at chapter twenty-three], and Michael had sent him one as well, a thin book called 'The Tales of Beedle the Bard'. Not having been 'raised' by wizards, Gabriel had absolutely no idea what it was, though a quick peek through showed that it was something like the magical version of fairy tales. There was an assortment of other presents from various people, including Hagrid and Michael's mom again, and even a fifth one from Draco, which Gabriel regarded thoughtfully before opening and resolved to give him something back. It was a simple silver pin, which caused Draco to do a double-take when he saw Gabriel wearing it on his tie later at dinner.

The dinner the night before had been as fabulous as last years', the crackers seemingly even louder when popped. Gabriel had found an assortment of thoroughly ridiculous toys which he left hidden around the castle for some random student to find, but a really lucky cracker provided a tiny spy kit which came with a book of codes. Gabriel pocketed that and made sure to leave it in his trunk when he went to disperse the other items around the school.

When everyone else returned from the holidays it was to a still-tense atmosphere. There hadn't been an attack in such a time that everyone was expecting one at any moment - the talisman trade was going on a strong as ever. Gabriel was the only one who ever walked around on his own anymore, and that was only because after the events of last year he'd been assured that, unless Slytherin's monster owned an angel blade or a bottle of holy oil and a match, it posed pretty much no danger.

Unless he did run into it and someone caught him still fighting after being fatally wounded but hey, what were the chances of that?

What he did run into was a rather angry Filch, and he wasn't along but instead with Hermione and Michael, who had insisted on coming with him. Gabriel could hear him muttering six feet away and decided to wait until the old caretaker had left before continuing on, holding out a warning arm to stop the other two from running into him. A door slammed and he rounded the corner, seeing at a glance what Filch must have been so angry about.

He must have been sitting under the torch bracket where his cat had been found, because there was a chair sitting there. Gabriel's attention, however, was on the half inch of water covering the floor. He splashed slightly as he walked, sending ripples everywhere, and Gabriel thought the sight looked familiar until he remembered that the corridor had been flooded on Halloween, too.

The water was seeping out from under a door to the right, and someone was wailing inside.

"What's she up to now?" asked Hermione exasperatedly.

"She?" Gabriel asked.

"That's Moaning Myrtle's bathroom," Hermione informed him, Michael listening in. "She haunts it - she's only a student ghost but she can be rather dramatic - no one uses this bathroom any more."

"What _is _wrong with her?" Michael asked, glancing down at the water covering the floor again.

"Let's go and see," Gabriel said, splashing over to the door. It was probably a bad idea to do so with his friends with him, considering how ghosts acted around him, but Gabriel was too interested to care. What would make a ghost so sad? And wasn't it a bit dangerous to keep a ghost in the school who might so easily become vengeful?

Wherever the ghost was, her crying was louder than ever as soon as they stepped inside, and it seemed to be coming from the stall farthest from the right. Even the walls and floors were soaked, and so the bathroom was darker than it should have been, the candles having been extinguished.

"Who's there?" the ghost hiccuped, and Gabriel wondered in the back of his mind how she did so without any lungs or organs to speak of. "Come to throw something else at me?"

"Why would we want to throw something at you?" Michael asked aloud, holding his robes out of the water.

"Don't ask me," the ghost - Myrtle - shouted, emerging from the stall with another wave of water and seemingly ignoring Gabriel's presence. "Here I am, minding my own business, and someone thinks it would be fun to throw a book at me..."

"Who threw it at you, anyway?" Gabriel asked. Myrtle looked at him sharply, as if she'd done a double take, and from where Gabriel had wandered over to the other side of the sinks where Michael and Hermione couldn't see him he gestured sharply not to say anything.

"I don't know," Myrtle sniffed, keeping an eye on Gabriel. "I was just sitting in the U-bend-" Gabriel wrinkled his nose at that. "-Thinking about death, and it fell right through the top of my head. It's over there, got washed out."

Gabriel waded over and picked the book up. It was dark blue, almost black, and in surprisingly good condition for something that had been dropped down a toilet. Gabriel used a bit of his robe to cover his hand when he picked it up because toilet water, really? Gross, even if no one used the bathroom. Who knew what was in the pipes.

"Are you mad?" Michael demanded. Ne'd moved to stop Gabriel from picking it up. "It could be dangerous!"

"Dangerous?" Gabriel let it fall open in his cautious hold. "It's a diary. A blank diary, to be exact."

"Well, some books can be," said Michael, who was still eyeing it cautiously. "There've been ones that burned your eyes out or ones you could never stop reading..."

"Well, obviously this one hasn't got anything to read." Gabriel snapped it shut. "And my eyes appear to be fine, so I'd go so far as to say this was probably something that someone hated for no particular reason and tried to drop down a toilet in a fit of anger." Gabriel held it up to examine it. "I wonder where they got it, though."

"Why?" Hermione asked, coming closer.

"This book's fifty years old," Gabriel pointed out, showing her the faded ink scribble of _1942_. Gabriel turned the page idly and his breath caught.

T. M. Riddle.

Tom. M. Riddle.

No. Way.

"Harry?" Hermione was peering over his shoulder. "What is it?"

"Nothing." Gabriel temporarily ignored the repeated _holy shit _in his head. "Just thought I recognized the name is all."

And the name wasn't all that had surprised him.

* * *

"What the fuck is _that _soul shard doing in this diary?"

Gabriel was pacing back and forth in an empty dormitory, mind whirling at the puzzle that he was confronted with.

"How did Voldy whatever get his hands on Tom Riddle's diary? Unless they knew each other..." Gabriel paused to scowl at the image of his Horn in the dark lord's hands. "Nah. But there is definitely a shard in that book, and whatever's making it that strong..."

He whirled to face it. "But what could it be? It's not gaining power from any definite source - and how did it even get into Hogwarts? Shouldn't there be wards against this sort of thing?" Gabriel crouched down as closer to the diary as he could, without being overwhelmed by the absolute stink of the soul shard in it. "And who's had it all year? Someone had to throw it in there..." Gabriel trailed off as he tried to construct a plausible scenario.

"Okay." He returned to pacing. "Someone has had this all year so far and something about it made them scared enough to throw it in a toilet. But why? Was it-" Gabriel stopped dead. "Leeching off of them," he whispered into the silent dormitory. "That's why it's so strong. It's been taking someone else's power."

He glared at the diary fiercely, as if that would help. "And for what? To become a complete soul? That wasn't the goal of the other two I saw - there's something else going on here."

Warily, Gabriel flipped open the diary. Its blank pages stared up at him almost mockingly. Gabriel shoved it away angrily and knocked over one of his ink bottles, the little hole for the quill spilling black all over the page.

"Sonuva-"

Gabriel stopped. The page was absorbing the ink, leaving none of it behind. Propping the bottle back up and ignoring the small stains left on the table, Gabriel examined the book closely.

No ink stains at all.

Curious, he picked up his quill, dipped it into the inkwell, and scrawled _Hello._

The soul shard moved ever so slightly, reacting to the word he'd written which by now had been sucked into the page. In a sort of fascinated horror, because _holy fuck it's sentient, _Gabriel watched as words appeared on the page.

**_Hello. Who might you be?_**

Gabriel decided to play the game.

He picked up his quill and wrote back.

_Who are you?_

**_My name is Tom Riddle._**

_What are you doing in a diary?_

_**I knew there would come a time when the knowledge contained in here would be needed.**  
_

Gabriel considered it. Tom Riddle had a diary that was fifty years old. He'd been given an award for special services to the school fifty years ago. What if...

_That knowledge wouldn't happen to be about the Chamber of Secrets, would it?_

**_How did you guess?_**

No way.

_Tell me where it is._

There was a brief pause before a reply was written. _**Why would you think that I know?**_

_Because I'm not stupid. When I see a diary belonging to Tom Riddle, same guy whose name is on a trophy for services to the school, and I know the Chamber of Secrets has been opened before, plus you mention necessary knowledge...not hard to string together._**  
**

**_That doesn't tell me why you think I know where the Chamber is._**

_Call it a hunch._

**_Why do you want to know?_**

_Because I'm looking for it._ Gabriel decided to give him some incentive to answer. _I've already found Ravenclaw's, after all._

**_Ravenclaw has a secret room?_**

_All the founders do. Where's the Chamber of Secrets?_

**_Where's Ravenclaw's room?_**

_A) I asked first, and B) which one of us actually has the ability to go traipsing through Hogwarts right now? Come on, Riddle._

Riddle was silent for a moment. Gabriel grinned wickedly. It was too bad 'Tom' couldn't see it.

_You're pouting because you can't reach my soul, can you?_

**_How did you_**

_Not hard, Tom. You see, I'm a little more wary than the last person who picked you up._

**_Where is your soul?_**

_Sorry to tell you, Tommy boy, but I haven't got one for you to take_

**_Impossible_**

_No, just improbable._

**_A dementor?_**

_Try 'not human'. Now, tell me, or this diary goes boom. Where's the Chamber of Secrets?_

**_You'd have to do a lot more than that to destroy this thing. I delved farther than any have ever gone into the Dark Arts, and I left this behind so my legacy could be continued! I will not let some creature destroy all the effort I have put into ridding this school of mudbloods_**

_So it was you who opened it the first time round?_

* * *

Riddle didn't write any more after that [and could anyone say 'pouting'?]. Gabriel stuffed it inside the cover of one of his textbooks, to make sure the soul shard didn't get up to any mischief on its own. Who knew what it could do.

He didn't go to a teacher, of course. What would he say? He'd discovered a part of Voldemort that was responsible for opening the chamber of secrets? Besides, Gabriel could handle it on his own. Archangel, anyone?

There were, of course, some things he refused to handle.

Such as the scene he walked onto in the Great Hall on February fourteenth.

Gabriel took one look at the lurid pink flowers decorating the hall, not to mention Lockhart's matching robes, said "Absolutely not." and walked away.

He spent the entire day hiding in the Astronomy tower [those dwarves were persistent little buggers] and on his return to Ravenclaw tower was promptly given detention by Flitwick for skipping class.

Totally worth it.

Soon after that, the second-year students were gripped with the problem of picking next year's subjects. Gabriel, unfortunately, was denied when he asked if it was possible to drop Potions.

They had to pick at least two extra classes in addition to the core ones, and Michael spent ages poring over the parchment which listed their choices. The prefects were only too eager to advise them on their choices, but Gabriel just picked the two that looked most interesting and handed it back to Flitwick a week later so it would look like he'd spent some time on it.

Most of his free time was spent trying to figure out what could be in the chamber. He eventually roped Michael and Hermione into it as well, giving them a heavily edited, cliff's notes version of his conversation with the diary. They had both been horrified and interested, and both were glad that he'd stopped talking to the diary [Gabriel didn't mention that it had been Riddle who stopped first].

"So he was the one who opened it last time?" Hermione asked again for the tenth time. "And he didn't give a hint what might be in there? Or how it's been opened now?"

"No," said Gabriel, also for the tenth time. "Hermione, honestly, I just asked you to help me figure out what could be in the chamber."

"And what were your clues again?"

Gabriel sighed internally. "I saw a load of spiders leaving on Halloween, so that might be connected to it. Also, it's something that freezes its victims, hence the petrification. And it's probably some sort of snake, since that's the symbol of Slytherin's house."

"Hmm." Hermione flipped a page in the book, and Gabriel noticed that she was using her course requests as a bookmark. But that wasn't what surprised him.

"You signed up for _every single class_?"

"Shut up," Hermione snapped, whipping the paper away and stuffing it in her bag.

"How is that even possible? How are you going to attend them all?"

"I'll take care of it," she said stiffly. "I've talked to Professor McGonagall. One moment, I've got to put this book away." Hermione stood up and left the table. Sighing, Gabriel watched her go, and scribbled a quick note saying he'd forgotten something in his dormitory before collecting his things and leaving. Hermione would be sniffy for the rest of the time they spent in the library and Gabriel was stretched too thin trying to figure out the Chamber's location to deal with a put-off twelve year old at the moment. The diary was being impossible, and he was getting no further with the clue.

Gabriel gathered his things and hurried out of the library. He bumped into someone near the front, dropping the books in his arms and causing both of them to stumble backwards. He'd run into the redheaded girl from the bookshop, oddly enough. She looked rather pale.

"Sorry," Gabriel said. Wide eyed, the girl hurried on her way, blushing furiously. Gabriel rolled his eyes and picked up his books. He was about to leave when someone called "Wait!"

It was the girl again. She was holding one of his books. "You forgot this," she muttered, holding it out.

"Thanks," said Gabriel absentmindedly, taking it back and shoving it in his bag as his steps directed him out of the library. It was a little abrupt, but his mind was still working on the Slytherin code - the mess that it was, even the code kit he'd gotten from the Christmas cracker hadn't helped.

The next Quidditch game of the season took place that Saturday, which was bright and sunny and therefore Gabriel found himself being dragged out to the stands by an eager Michael, who was determined to get him to watch at least one.

Hermione had begged off to go to the library. Gabriel wasn't sure what had prompted that, but there was one possible explanation; as soon as he'd set foot in the entrance hall he'd heard that strange voice again, the one that had foretold Justin's petrification and the same one he'd heard before Halloween.

"What?" Michael asked, almost irritably. Gabriel had shouted in surprise when he heard it, making both nir and Hermione jump.

"I heard it again!"

"What-" Hermione seemed to remember something. "That voice?"

"Voice?" Michael asked bemusedly, but Gabriel just nodded. Hermione looked as though she'd been struck with a sudden idea.

"I've just - one moment! I have to go to the library!"

"What about the game?" Michael shouted after her.

"Go on without me, I'll be down in a minute!"

"Let's just go," Gabriel said to a slightly put-off Michael. "The game'll probably be over before she comes out."

This prediction, however, did not come true.

They had barely begun to climb up into the stands when McGonagall came across the field, nearly running, carrying an enormous purple megaphone.

"This match has been cancelled," she shouted to the crowd, drawing out groans of disappointment. The players looked horrified, and one of them ran after McGonagall, who was turning to leave. They had a short conversation, but McGonagall shook him off and called out again.

"All students are to make their way back to their House common rooms, where their Heads of House will give further information. As quickly as you can, please!"

Gabriel and Michael turned to leave, but McGonagall strangely enough came over to stop them.

"Potter...Corner...I think you'd better come with me."

Exchanging bewildered glances, they both followed the Transfiguration professor up through the castle. Gabriel's heart sank slightly as he realized they were heading to the hospital wing.

_Please don't let this be what I think it is..._

"This will be a bit of a shock," said McGonagall in a surprisingly gentle voice. "There's been another attack...another double attack."

_No._

There were two more occupied beds in the Hospital wing, with Madam Pomfrey bustling around them. One of them was an older Ravenclaw girl Gabriel recognized as being one of the prefects, and in the one next to her was-

"Hermione?" Michael sounded horrorstruck.

Gabriel's insides seemed to have switched places. Hermione was lying on the bed, unusually still, just like Justin had been. He stared blankly at the sight as McGonagall spoke again.

"They were found near the library," she said. "I don't suppose any of you can explain this? It was found on the floor near them..."

She held out a small pocket-mirror. Michael shook his head. Gabriel was still staring at Hermione.

"I shall escort you both back to Ravenclaw Tower," said McGonagall heavily. "I suppose Flitwick will be addressing the students."

* * *

"All students will return to their House common rooms by six o'clock in the evening. No student is to leave the dormitories after that time. You will be escorted to each lesson by a teacher. No student is to use the bathroom unaccompanied by a teacher. All further Quidditch training and matches are to be postponed. There will be no more evening activities."

Everyone in the common room listened to Flitwick in dead silence. They were all shaken by the second attack, especially as this time one of their own had been taken. Flitwick rolled up the parchment and added his own voice. "I need hardly add that, as it is unlikely that the culprit behind these attacks will be caught, the school is likely to close." No one made any noise, though several people shifted uncomfortably and the first-years looked particularly distressed. "I would urge anyone who thinks they might know anything to come forward."

Gabriel closed his eyes in mental indecision. Was keeping his species a secret really more important than finding who had done it? But catching the monster wouldn't cure Hermione - they'd have to wait for the Mandrakes before that happened.

"Hasn't anyone noticed that only the Slytherins have been exempt from these attacks?" demanded one of the older Ravenclaws. Flitwick had left while Gabriel was debating with himself. "Shouldn't we be doing something?"

"Doing what?" Someone else asked in a thick voice. Gabriel left silently, leaving them to their debate. He slipped up the stairs to the dormitories and sat heavily on his bed.

He needed to find the Chamber of Secrets. Grimly, Gabriel pulled out the textbook he'd hidden the diary in.

It wasn't there.

Gabriel stared blankly at the sight before something burst in him and he tipped his entire bag out, sorting through the books and even looking in his trunk for the diary because this was _not possible, _he was not going to loose his only method of finding the place when he needed it the most!

There was a quiet creak behind Gabriel of the door opening. It was Michael. "Harry?"

Gabriel knew it had to look odd, him standing surrounded by a pile of tossed-aside books and a ransacked trunk. "It's gone."

"What's gone?"

"The diary!" Gabriel rounded on Michael. "The diary is gone and it can't be gone because I _need it_!"

"Harry, calm down-"

"_I will not calm down!" _Furiously, Gabriel snatched a pillow off the nearest bed and threw it at Michael. It hit the doorframe next to his head. "Our friend is in the hospital wing looking like she's dead and you're telling me to 'calm down'?!"

"Harry-"

"_Get out!" _Gabriel screamed at him. The door slammed and Gabriel clenched the end of his bed to keep himself from falling over and he could faintly hear the wood creaking under his grip but he didn't care because _his friend was not going to die._

_Think, _he told himself furiously. _Where could you possibly have left it?_

He hadn't dropped any of his books, except in...

_The library._

It came to him in a flash. The girl had returned one of the books he'd dropped, saying he'd left it behind, but Gabriel had definitely picked them all up. She could have seen the diary poking out of one of the books, or maybe it had fallen out and she hadn't noticed, but either way it was most likely her who had the diary right now.

Mission: set.

* * *

It was absolutely impossible to find the youngest redhead.

Gabriel had class periods with them, of course, but no one would look lightly on him taking something from a younger year, and his Gryffindor-shared classes were only with the second-years, and she was in the year below him. He could always ask her brother, the boy he'd met on the train, but that would mean bringing a third person into the whole mess and Gabriel really didn't feel like explaining why he needed the kid's little sister's diary.

They were escorted from class to class, so it was absolutely impossible to break away and go looking for her - even if he did whoever was shepherding the first year Gryffindors would definitely noticed an older Raven in their midst, despite Gabriel's height.

But Gabriel had to do _something. _

'Something' occurred during their next Herbology lesson.

They had been shepherded down and to the edge of the lawn by McGonagall, and in Greenhouse three they were all put to work despite the tense atmosphere that had affected everyone. Gabriel was partnered with a sullen Slytherin who kept hissing that he was doing it wrong. Gabriel, out of the corner of his eye, saw something that had him distracted from the stump they were supposed to be pruning.

Spiders.

He hadn't thought there were any left in the castle - they seemed to flee with every attack. Gabriel watched them go with narrowed eyes, ignoring his partner - they seemed to be heading straight for the Forbidden Forest.

* * *

**I'm going to end it there because I gave you guys a super long chapter and I need to take a break from writing for a moment. Haha who am I kidding I'll probably start the next one right away.**

**Read and review!**


	18. In Which Gabriel Is the Knight in Armor

**Next chapter! I hope you all enjoyed Gabriel's distressed anger scene. It was mildly painful to write but you know you love it. It may have come out a little different in terms of angst than I intended, but anyhow.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter.**

* * *

An invisible figure drifted across the lawn several nights later, the grass flattening under its feet. Under the invisibility cloak, Gabriel held his wand tightly by his side, drawing closer to the Forbidden Forest. As he made it inside the first layer of trees, he drew the cloak off - no one would see him in the darkness, as even Hagrid wasn't around anymore.

It had come as a shock. Not only had, apparently, Hagrid been blamed for opening the chamber of secrets [and Gabriel seriously wondered who had made _that _decision] but Dumbledore had been removed from his position as Headmaster, both seemingly overnight. It had thrown the school into even bigger chaos, people wondering how they were safe now that someone regarded as the greatest wizard of their time had been removed from Hogwarts.

Gabriel still thought that if Dumbledore was really the greatest wizard, he should be figuring these things out sooner. Admittedly, Gabriel was a celestial being with millenia of experience, but if he had actually been twelve it would have been sort of pathetic.

Gabriel bent almost double, trying to make out whether there were any spiders on the ground. By chance, one crawled by just then, and Gabriel quickly spelled it to glow so that he could make it out more easily.

The luminescent spider was fast, and Gabriel hurriedly stuffed the cloak in his pocket as he followed it. It was going ever deeper into the forest, and several times he almost lost the thing among the thicket of trees and all sorts of undergrowth. Twice Gabriel was sure something moved in the blackness around him, but he didn't dare look behind him for fear of loosing the spider.

It was because of this that the bigger one took him unawares.

Something seized Gabriel around the middle and lifted him swiftly into the air, his head facing downwards towards the floor. Struggling to get out of its grip, he saw the forest falling away on either side of him as the creature carried him in deeper.

Head hanging, Gabriel saw that whatever it was, it had six immensely hairy legs, and another pair was obviously what was holding him. Directly above the front two legs were a pair of sharp black pincers that gleamed in the scarce moonlight, and Gabriel had never been more glad that he couldn't get poisoned.

He was in its clutches for what seemed like ages, and as it carried him deeper Gabriel could see that the ground beneath him was swarming with something, most likely more of the monsters. He craned his neck and saw that they were now in a vast hollow, and with no trees to speak of he saw what had to be the creepiest scene ever.

Spiders. Absolutely everywhere. And not ordinary spiders either, but ones the size of draft horses and cars. Gabriel realized with a thrill of horror that the thing carrying him must have been a spider as well, and it was at least as tall as one of the smaller oak trees surrounding them. It towered over the other spiders, and as it scuttled towards a huge domed web in the middle of the hollow it dropped him.

Gabriel landed on all fours and rolled with his momentum, coming out on his feet, and whipping out his wand threateningly at any spider who looked like it was getting too closer for comfort. They left a space around him, milling around in a circle and more still were coming, blanketing the trees on the edge.

The spider who had carried him here was saying something, but it was hard to make out as its pincers clicked with every syllable. "Aragog," it called, and Gabriel thought it was a nonsense word until another spider emerged, this time from the web in the center.

It was even bigger, the size of a small elephant at least. Its eyes were milky and clouded, and Gabriel realized with some relief that it must be blind.

"What is it?"

"Men," said the first spider, its pincers clicking rapidly.

"Hagrid?" Aragog asked, and Gabriel was _definitely _going to ask the gamekeeper about this because he was pretty sure that raising humungous spiders in the woods near a school full of children was not okay at all.

"Strangers," replied the first.

"Kill them," said Aragog, almost fretfully. "I was sleeping."

"I wouldn't do that!" Gabriel shouted, trying to keep a lid on his panic. With his Grace the way it was and his magic almost entirely untrained, there was no way he could take on so many of them and come out with his vessel intact. He'd be shredded.

"Why not?" hissed Aragog. "When you come so willingly into out nest..."

"Technically, I was carried," Gabriel snarked. "And I'm a bit important back up at the school...they might miss me, you know! And I don't suppose you'd want wizards swarming over your hollow!" He had to shout to make the words reach the giant spider.

There was a pause of silence and Gabriel decided to continue. "And besides!" He yelled. "I've got questions for you! Why have you been running from the school all year? Is it because of the Chamber of Secrets?"

That set off a wave of clicking around the hollow. "But that was many years ago," said Aragog fretfully. "They believed I was the monster, that dwells in what they call the Chamber. That's why they made him leave."

"You mean Hagrid?"

"Do you know him?"

"Yeah," Gabriel lied through his teeth, hoping that maybe it would gain him some lenience. "So you never attacked anyone?"

"Never," said the giant spider. "Out of respect to Hagrid, I never harmed a human...The body of the girl who was killed was discovered in a bathroom, and I never saw any part of the castle save the cupboard in which I grew up."

"Then what's in the Chamber?" Gabriel mentally cursed that the thing couldn't tell him where it was.

There was another loud outbreak of clicking, accompanied by a rustling sound, as if the spiders were shifting around. They sounded almost angry.

"The thing that lives in the castle," said Aragog, "Is an old creature we spiders fear above all others. When I sensed it in the castle I begged Hagrid to let me go, but he would not hear of it..."

"What is it?"

"We do not speak its name!" Aragog's statement was louder than the others.

Gabriel mentally considered his options. He'd spent enough time here already. "I suppose I'll go, then."

"Go?" Aragog turned away. "No, you will not go."

"I was afraid of that," Gabriel muttered.

"I will not refuse my sons and daughters," the giant spider said, descending into his nest, "Not when fresh meat wanders so willingly into our nest..."

The spiders surged towards him.

Gabriel drew something almost unconsciously and his magic reacted to his needs. He threw his arms out, silver weapon glittering and wand in the other hand, and his inherited magic burst out, knocking back the spiders. Gabriel was on his way out of the hollow before they could react, using one particularly large specimen to make his way to the edge and breaking into a dead sprint.

He heard them rushing after him and shouted out a spell he'd seen in one of the books in the common room. Luckily it worked, and as something shrieked behind him a tree groaned and came crashing down on the path. Gabriel did it again, toppling trees to block the spiders and aiming for the spiders themselves but it didn't seem to work, and the horde was relentless.

Gabriel didn't get tired or need a break in his vessel but that didn't matter. The spiders were larger and could cover more ground, and his core was being depleted with all of these high-powered curses. He'd taken out at least ten of the big ones but there were three more to replace every one that fell behind and Gabriel was wondering if he shouldn't just climb a tree and wait it out when a hunting horn resounded in the night.

He was picked up for the second time that night but this time whoever was carrying him had human arms, gripping him tightly around the chest as people leaped into the fray, and Gabriel was sure he heard the twang of arrows being fired. The spiders were shrieking and from what Gabriel could hear they were turning back. He was put down and as Gabriel looked up he realized two things.

One, he was surrounded by centaurs.

Two, he had somehow unconsciously drawn his angel blade when running from the spiders.

"What are you doing in the forest?" One of the centaurs asked roughly.

"I was looking for answers," Gabriel replied. "Thanks for stepping in with the spiders."

"It was not for your sake," a different centaur responded. He was tall and stocky, a dark brown color. "The spiders overstepped their bounds."

"Thanks anyway." Gabriel glanced backwards, towards where he thought the school was. "Any chance I get to walk free back to the school?"

"What were you seeking answers to?" A blonde centaur asked.

"Lots of things. Mostly the answer to the monster that's in the school."

There were several ahs at that. "You care so much that you would come into the forest on your own?" asked one of them in astonishment.

"It attacked my friend," Gabriel said coolly. "Besides, I can take care of myself." He raised the angel blade slightly, the silver glinting in the scant moonlight.

The centaurs seemed to concentrate on it, one or two of them glancing up at what parts of the sky were visible. They obviously realized that it wasn't made of anything found on Earth.

"You," said one of them slowly, "Are not really Harry Potter, are you."

Gabriel grinned impishly, which was nearly invisible in the dark. "What gave it away?"

The centaurs began whispering among themselves, while those at the front regarded Gabriel with thoughtful looks. "Firenze will accompany you to the edge of the forest," one of them said, the palomino edging forward.

"Thanks," said Gabriel again, and he gave them a two-fingered salute as he followed the pale centaur. He practically glowed, light fur reflecting what little light there was, and thus was easier to follow then, say, the black one might have been.

When they were near enough to the edge of the forest that Gabriel could see out of the trees, he dug his invisibility cloak out, 'Firenze' watching in bemusement. He put a finger over his lips and thanked the centaur once more before draping it over himself and moving quickly towards the school - if he was found out then this whole night would have gone to waste.

Something occurred to Gabriel as he was edging past the doors. Aragog had said that a girl's body had been found in a bathroom when the Chamber was last opened.

What if she'd never left it?

* * *

Trying to sneak into a disused girl's bathroom, much less one right next to the scene of the first attack, proved to be nearly impossible. It had been hard enough trying to think of a way he could corner the redhead who had probably stolen the diary, but now Gabriel found himself well and truly stumped. If only he could use his Grace...but no matter how long he left it to build up, hardly any of his Grace had returned since he'd last checked it.

In his first lesson on Monday, McGonagall informed them all that they would still be having exams, one week from then.

"Exams?" Someone asked disbelievingly.

"The whole point of keeping this school open at this time is for you to receive your education," McGonagall said sharply. "The exams will therefore take place as usual, and I trust you are all revising hard."

It hadn't occurred to anyone, much less Gabriel, to think about exams at a time like this. There was a lot of frantic rushing about in Ravenclaw tower as upper years tried hastily to get their usual study groups together.

Gabriel, of course, could care less. It didn't matter if he flunked out of the year, since as long as the monster was still around there would most likely not be a Hogwarts to come back to next year. If he did manage to get rid of it, he could always try and fudge the results with his Grace.

Three days before exams, McGonagall announced at breakfast that the Mandrakes were finally ready to be made into the de-Petrification potion. This was greeted by a storm of cheering, and Gabriel felt his heart leap. Even Draco had joined in, to the surprise of the people sitting around him, although Gabriel could see a vaguely pained look on his face.

Gabriel knew that, by tomorrow the whole mystery might solve itself when the Petified students woke up, but even so he wasn't going to pass up a chance to speak to Myrtle and figure out what was going on anyways. And to his delight the chance came that day, mid-morning when they were being led to their next class by Lockhart.

Lockhart, who had so often falsely reassured them that the danger had passed, seemed convinced that it was thoroughly unnecessary to lead them to their next class. He looked a little more untidy than usual, and Gabriel guessed that he had been up all night patrolling the corridors.

It was ridiculously easy to convince him to let the Ravenclaws go off on their own while he slipped away to do who knows what, and it took Gabriel only seconds to 'accidentally' turn the wrong corner and be on his way to Myrtle's bathroom when...

"Potter! What are you doing?"

McGonagall was marching towards him, mouth pressed into a thin white line. Gabriel hurried to think of a good lie.

"I was-" he actually stuttered and damn it why was this woman so intimidating. It might have been the fact that she was at least a foot and a half taller than he was at the moment. "I was going to see Hermione."

McGonagall looked at him sharply and Gabriel hurried to continue. "It's just - I haven't seen her in ages, and I thought, er-"

McGonagall was still staring at him and Gabriel wondered whether she was about to yell. But when she spoke, it was with a strangely rough voice.

"Of course," she said tightly, and Gabriel was surprised that it had actually worked. "Of course, I realize that this has been very hard on...I quite understand. Yes, Potter, of course you may visit Miss Granger. I will inform Professor Binns- tell Madam Pomfrey that I have given my permission."

Slightly stunned, Gabriel watched her walk out of sight. Of course, now he actually had to go to the hospital wing, so that sort of failed, but it wasn't a huge loss.

Madam Pomfrey let him in very reluctantly.

"There's just no point talking to a Petrified person," she muttered, and Gabriel got the feeling he hadn't been meant to overhear. Of course, she was right, and it only made Gabriel depressed to see Hermione perfectly still.

He took a seat next to her with a sigh. "That went well," he muttered. "I suppose you'd have thought of something more clever."

Hermione, of course, did not respond.

"Fat lot of good this is doing," Gabriel spoke again, if only to break the silence which permeated the hospital wing. He looked away from Hermione's face and noticed that her hand was curled around something.

Curious, he looked closer. There was a scrunched-up bit of paper in her hand.

"What's this?"

Glancing around for Madam Pomfrey, Gabriel struggled to get it out without tearing the paper - Hermione's hand, obviously, couldn't move out of the way for him. Eventually, he managed to pull out the last bit and smooth it out. It looked like it had been torn from a very old library book.

_Of the many fearsome beasts and monsters which roam our lands, there is none more curious or more deadly than the Basilisk, known also as King of the Serpents. This snake, which may reach gigantic size, and live many hundreds of years, is born from a chicken's egg, hatched beneath a toad. Its methods of killing are most wondrous, for_ aside_ from its deadly and venomous fangs, the Basilisk has a murderous stare, and all who are fixed with the beam of its eye shall suffer instant death. Spiders flee before the Basilisk, for it is their mortal enemy, and the Basilisk flees only from the crowing of the rooster, which is fatal to it._

Beneath this passage, in a single scrawl, Hermione had written _Pipes._

"Oh," Gabriel breathed. "Oh, this is brilliant!" The monster in the Chamber was a Basilisk! And it had been getting around in the pipes - that was why he had kept hearing it from inside the walls! "You brilliant girl!"

Gabriel's gaze darted around. None of the people in here were dead - because none of them had looked straight at it! The Gryffindor kid must have seen it through his camera, and the Hufflepuff through the ghost...and of course Nick couldn't die _again._ Hermione and the Ravenclaw prefect had been found near the library with a mirror...Hermione must have seen the girl and warned her to check around corners with one first. But what about the cat?

Of course, Myrtle's bathroom. The hall had been flooded on Halloween as well! The cat must have seen the reflection!

"Hermione, I could kiss you right now."

But where was the entrance? Gabriel stood up and almost started pacing when something occurred to him. Where was one place the plumbing was close to the surface? Where was one place he knew someone had died in a room like that?

"Moaning Myrtle's bathroom," he whispered.

Gabriel ran out of the hospital wing. He was heading straight for the bathroom, but before he could get there, a magically magnified voice echoed through the corridor.

"_All students to return to their House dormitories at once. All teachers return to the staff room. Immediately, please."_

What had happened now? Another attack?

Curiosity overpowering him, Gabriel redirected his steps to the staff room, not bothering with the cloak and instead using his Grace to cloak himself. He arrived just before the other teachers did, and his out of the way in a wardrobe full of musty robes. It wouldn't do for anyone to bump into him.

As the teachers filed in, some looked puzzled, while others looked downright scared. McGonagall arrived last.

"It has happened," she told the silent staff room. "A student has been taken by the monster. Right into the chamber itself."

There were various reactions of shock and horror. Gabriel leaned closer to hear. Who had been taken?

"How can you be sure?" Someone asked.

"The heir of Slytherin," said McGonagall heavily, "Left another note. Right underneath the first. _Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever."_

Someone burst into tears.

"Who is it?"

"Ginny Weasley."

Weasley?

Wasn't that the name of the girl who had stolen the diary?

Gabriel was seized by horror. If the diary had been leeching off of her...there was only too large a possibility that it could have taken control for any period of time.

Someone had been speaking when the door of the staff room burst open.

"So sorry - " said the voice of Lockhart. "-Dozed off - what have I missed?"

"Just the man," said a sneering voice that must have been Snape. "The very man. A girl has been snatched by the monster, Lockhart. Taken in to the Chamber of Secrets itself. Your time has come at last."

"That's right, Gilderoy," someone else chipped in after Lockhart remained silent. "Weren't you saying just last night that you've known all along where the Chamber of secrets is?"

"I - well, I-" Lockhart sputtered.

"Yes, didn't you tell me you were sure you knew what was inside it?" Flitwick piped up.

"Did I? I-I don't quite recall..."

"I certainly remember you saying you were sorry you hadn't had a crack at the monster before Hagrid was arrested," Snape said. "Didn't you say that the whole affair had been bungled, and that you should have been given a free rein from the first?"

Lockhart was silent for some time, then began stuttering out excuses.

"We'll leave it to you then, Gilderoy," said McGonagall, speaking over him. "Tonight will be an excellent time to do it. We'll make sure everyone's out of your way. You'll be able to tackle the monster all by yourself. A free rein at last."

"V-very well," said Lockhart after a long silence. "I'll - I'll be in my office, getting - getting ready."

And he left.

So did Gabriel, who was honestly itching for some decent Trickster action.

"Oi!" he called, and Lockhart turned around in the middle of the hallway. "Where are you going in such a hurry, Professor?" Lockhart didn't seem to notice the sarcasm Gabriel injected into the last word.

"Oh, hello, Harry," said the man quickly. "Urgent call, really...got to go..."

"And what about the Chamber? You know," Gabriel looked up at him innocently. "Saving Ginny Weasley and all."

Lockhart was staring at him incredulously. "How-"

"Never mind that." Gabriel was smiling again. "It seems to be your lucky day, Professor. I know exactly where to go."

* * *

Lockhart, as it turned out, had to be guided at wandpoint to Myrtle's bathroom. He looked weak-chinned and not at all like he usually did, even dressed in eye-watering green robes.

"What are you doing here?" Myrtle asked warily as Gabriel poked Lockhart in.

"To ask how you died," Gabriel said bluntly. "It was a giant snake, wasn't it?"

"I don't know about a snake," Myrtle said. She was looking as though she had never been asked a more interesting question. "All I know is that Olive Hornby was teasing me about my glasses again, and I-"

"Can you skip to the bit where you actually died?"

Myrtle looked put out. "I just remember a pair of great, big, yellow eyes. My whole body sort of seized up, and then I was floating away...I came back though."

"I can see that." Gabriel glanced around. "Where were the eyes?"

"Over there," answered Myrtle, pointing to the sink nearest Gabriel.

He shuffled over, keeping his wand trained on Lockhart, and eyed the sink carefully. One one of the taps, there was a scratched design that looked vaguely like a snake, but maybe Gabriel was just at the wrong angle.

"That tap's never worked," said Myrtle cheerfully as Gabriel reached out to twist it. He examined the snake carefully.

_Hmm...maybe I should use the same method as I did on the snake in front of the common room?_

"Open up," Gabriel said. Both Lockhart and the ghost looked at him, puzzled.

"This never works the first time," Gabriel muttered, then cleared his throat and concentrated hard on the snake.

"Open up."

Lockhart jumped violently and even Myrtle gave a little start. The sink began to drop out of view into the ground, revealing the entrance to a huge, filthy pipe.

"Well!" Lockhart cleared his throat. "I don't think you really need me now you've figured it out-"

"Actually, I think you're going before me." Gabriel aimed his wand at Lockhart. "Ladies first, Professor."

Lockhart swallowed nervously and peered over the edge of the pipe. Gabriel pushed him in and listened as the man's screams faded away.

"Fairly deep then," he mused. "Oh, hell." And he jumped in himself.

* * *

The bottom was just as dirty as the slide, but Gabriel had no time to wrinkle his nose at the tiny skeletons [mostly mice and rats] littering the ground. Lockhart was white as a ghost, standing a few feet away from the pipe.

The tunnel was black as night, which meant they were probably far underground by now.

"Lumos!" The tip of Gabriel's wand lit and sent their shadows arcing up the walls like huge beasts. Gabriel was too engaged in going forwards to make sure Lockhart was somewhere he could see him.

There was something huge and curved lying across the tunnel in front of him. Gabriel paused, hoping that perhaps it was asleep, but the wandlight that was accidentally sent skittering across it revealed that it wasn't a snake, but a snakeskin.

"Ho-ly shit."

It was enormous, a venomous green color and at least sixty feet long. The top if it, where the skin hadn't been flattened, was well above Gabriel's head. There was a sudden movement behind Gabriel; Lockhart, upon following him and seeing it, had collapsed to his knees.

"Get up," Gabriel said sharply. Lockhart didn't move. Gabriel moved closer, intending to maybe use a Stinging Hex when Lockhart surged upwards and launched himself at Gabriel.

Gabriel fell over backwards and felt his wand being wrestled out of his hand. Lockhart stood up panting with the stolen wand and Gabriel brought himself to his feet irritably.

Lockhart was grinning brightly again. "The adventure ends here, Harry!" he said. "I shall take a bit of the skin up to the school and tell them that I was too late to save the girl...and you, of course, tried to follow me and _tragically _lost your mind at the sight of her mangled body. Say goodbye to your memories! _Obliviate!"_

The white light arced towards Gabriel off of his own wand. Gabriel swatted it away and the rebound hit an astonished Lockhart, throwing him to the ground. Gabriel stomped over.

"Give me that," he snapped, snatching his wand back. Lockhart blinked and looked around. Gabriel hit him sharply on the forehead and Lockhart slumped over again, out cold.

"That's him taken care of," Gabriel muttered, turning around and relighting his wand. "If he was willing to do that and take the credit from me I wonder about all of his other adventures."

He made his way past the empty snakeskin, alert for any sort of movement in the darkness. The tunnel twisted and turned and finally around one bend Gabriel came across a solid wall, upon which was carved two serpents winding around each other. They looked eerily alive, emerald eyes glinting in the darkness.

"Open," Gabriel told them again, and it actually work the first time. The two snakes parted as the wall cracked open and Gabriel strode through the doorway.

The hall he entered was huge, stone pillars carved with _yet more snakes _and reaching up to support a roof cloaked in darkness. In the odd, green-tinted gloom which filled the chamber, they cast long black shadows.

There was a statue of a man at one end, but everything but his face was underwater. Two more man-made rivers ran on either side of the path in front of Gabriel, and the statue combined with the fact that it was nearly black made him think that it was much deeper than it looked.

A small, black, red-haired figure was lying on the stone ground in front of the pool which surrounded the statue.

"Shit. Shitshitshit." Gabriel lengthened his pace until he was running, skidding slightly on the wet ground and dropping down next to the figure. It was undoubtedly Ginny Weasley, and Gabriel had to resort to putting his ear to her chest after both her wrist and her neck failed to yield a pulse. There was one, but it was faint and thready, and as Gabriel sat back up he tried to ignore the fact that she was absolutely freezing cold. He refused to look at her soul - it would only depress him, and if it had gone so far that she was unconscious-

"She won't wake."

Gabriel spun around from where he was crouched, raising into a half-standing position. A black haired boy was leaning against one of the pillars closest to Gabriel, and he was strangely misty around the edges, as if Gabriel were looking at him through a load of fog.

"I assume you're Tom Riddle, then," Gabriel said calmly. He had already noticed the diary thrown to one side near where Ginny was lying.

The boy's eyes narrowed as he stood up straight. "Funny," he said. "You know my name, but I don't recall learning yours."

"I didn't say," replied Gabriel. "Now how about we take this somewhere you can't have your Basilisk do the dirty work for you, eh?" He nodded towards Ginny. "Or her, for that matter. What's the matter, got to possess kids to get anything done?"

"It was necessary," Riddle said coolly. "She should have been more wary...little Ginny poured her heart and soul into writing to me...how she'd had to come to Hogwarts with second-hand robes, how she thought-"

"Shut up," said Gabriel sharply, standing up fully. "Now you might have been bad enough on your own, but bringing kids into it? She's eleven, dipshit. Leave her alone."

"You speak as though you weren't a child."

"I'm not." Gabriel gave Riddle a sharklike grin. "Not human, remember me now?"

Riddle's eyes widened. "_You."_

"Me," Gabriel agreed. "Now I'm not here to see your evil plot or anything, Tom. In fact, I'm mostly here to stop this soul crap you've got going on."

"And how will you do that when you are too busy fighting to save little Ginny?" Riddle's eyes flicked up to the statue, and he began to speak, but something interrupted him.

Both soul and Gabriel turned to see where the strange call had come from.

Something golden was flying down the tunnel, and as it drew closer Gabriel saw that it was some sort of strange bird, one with long feathers and scarlet plumage that was tipped with a yellow so bright it looked golden. As it flew overhead it dropped something at Gabriel's feet, which unrolled to reveal the Sorting Hat.

_What the fuck._

"This is what the headmaster sends his champion?" Riddle asked mockingly. "A songbird and an old hat? What good will that do you?"

"I figure a phoenix would be pretty handy," Gabriel muttered, his eyes on the bird as it circled.

Riddle glanced up, seemingly realizing the same thing. "Ah," he muttered. "But I doubt it will be much use against the Basilisk." He turned again to the statue and spoke, this time with a hissing sibilance that told Gabriel he was using Parseltongue. "_Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts four."_

A flick of Gabriel's fingers sent Ginny to the side and out of the way as he turned around. The mouth of the statue was opening, and as Gabriel took a few steps backward something moved within it.

The Basilisk piled itself onto the stone floor, parts of its body going underwater as it snaked out of the pool. Its eyes were closed, and it was turning its head from side to side as if looking - or rather smelling - for someone.

Gabriel looked over at Ginny to make sure she was out of the way and saw something silver glittering inside the Hat. Without wondering why he was doing so Gabriel grabbed for whatever it was and drew a long, silver broadsword from the Hat. It was shining as though ti had been freshly polished, and looked as sharp as anything. Gripping the long hilt tightly, Gabriel faced the giant snake again and found it about three inches from his face.

"_Kill him," _Riddle hissed, and the Basilisk's eyes snapped open. They were indeed a bright, lamplike yellow like Myrtle had said, with large slitted pupils.

"You'll have to do better than that," he told the snake, shaking off the temporary stiffness in his vessel, and leaped up, shoving the broadsword into one of its eyes and using it as a springboard to get onto the snake's head. The Basilisk shrieked, a strange sound coming from the mouth of a snake. The phoenix came swooping down and attacked the other eye and the Basilisk thrashed around, making Gabriel told on to the embedded sword to keep himself in one place.

Blinded, the Basilisk sniffed around for him while Gabriel held himself onto its head, looking for a weak spot. The best place to go would be the head, and he was preparing to strike when a blast came and knocked him back onto the ground.

Swearing, Gabriel righted himself. He'd left the broadsword in the Basilisk's eye on accident, and a few feet away a murderous-looking Riddle was holding his wand, aiming it straight at Gabriel.

"What is it with people stealing my wand today?" Gabriel complained as he jumped out of the way of the Basilisk. It overshot and nearly plummeted into the pool, whipping around and splashing water everywhere as it tried to get back to Gabriel. Gabriel, in a feat that would have gotten him killed had he actually been human, ran straight at it and grabbed the sword again, pulling it out of the now thoroughly-ruined eye.

The Basilisk screamed again, and Riddle yelled in rage. The snake opened its mouth as though intending to eat Gabriel whole but Gabriel saw a chance and took it, shoving the sword up through the roof of its mouth. The snake thrashed around and then slumped to the ground, half of its body still in the pool and the rest of it haphazardly lying around the chamber.

Absentmindedly, Gabriel yanked out the fang that had gotten stuck in his arm and winced at the sensation of poison. It wasn't deadly, but it felt like being filled with pins and needles.

Riddle was watching in horror, Gabriel's wand long forgotten by his side. Gabriel practically strolled over to where the diary was and was already holding it before Riddle reacted.

"Stop!" He shouted as Gabriel held the fang over the diary. Hopefully Basilisk venom would be enough to get rid of the thing.

"What do you want?"

"I don't want anything from you!"

"Really?" said Gabriel idly. "Because I do think you have some information I want."

He saw how Riddle paused, calculating, a Slytherin in full. "What?" He asked warily.

"Nothing important," replied Gabriel. "Just...the location of Ravenclaw's diadem."

''And why would I know where that is?"

"I spoke to the grey lady, you know." Gabriel lowered the fang until it was almost touching the diary. "Any last words, then?"

"Wait, no!" Gabriel ignored the spirit. He knew that he'd get nothing out of it and so plunged the fang into the diary.

Ink went everywhere. It dripped down Gabriel's now even dirtier robes and pooled on the floor. Riddle gave a curdling scream and vanished, as if he'd been torn into tiny pieces.

There was silence in the chamber.

Gabriel put the ruined diary in his pocket and walked over to where Ginny was now propped up against one of the pillars. She was much warmer and her pulse was better, and she appeared to be waking up. Gabriel put two fingers to her forehead to keep her asleep - no need for her to wake up and panic at the sight of a filthy rescuer, a really creepy chamber, and a huge-ass dead snake.

The sword was tucked into his belt, since no sheath had been provided. Gabriel fetched his wand from where Riddle had dropped it, then picked up the Sorting Hat and placed it on Ginny's head for convenience, since he certainly wasn't going to wear it, and then hoisted her up. She was light enough to carry fairly easily, and as Gabriel made his way past the Basilisk's corpse Ginny shifted in her sleep, putting her arms around his neck. He rolled his eyes and kept going.

The phoenix followed him out as he walked through the tunnel again, providing a strangely comforting light. Lockhart was still where Gabriel had left him, and Gabriel kicked him in the shins to wake the man up since his hands were full. He woke up with a sputter, and looked up at Gabriel curiously.

"Hello," he said. "Who are you?"

"Bloody hell," Gabriel muttered. "You've forgotten everything."

The phoenix warbled and landed in front of Gabriel, seemingly offering one of its tail feathers. Gabriel regarded it carefully.

"You want me to grab your tail?" Something similar to a _yes _came out. "Alright. You-" He directed the last word to Lockhart. "Grab the bird's tail." As Lockhart did so Gabriel shifted Ginny around so he could free one of his hands and grasped the feathers.

The phoenix took off and lifted all of them seemingly effortlessly, flying back up the winding pipe and they were back in the bathroom. Gabriel glanced down at himself and Ginny and decided that cleaning himself off would have to wait, as it would be suspicious if his robes weren't dirty.

"Oh, you're back." said Myrtle. "And you survived." She sounded almost disappointed.

"Yeah," Gabriel muttered as the phoenix disappeared in a flash of flames. "That's me. The survivor." He sighed mentally and wondered how he was going to explain all of this.

"Might as well go up to McGonagall's office."

* * *

Luckily everyone was still in their dorms, or it would have taken even longer to get up to McGonagall's office. Lockhart trailed behind him, apparently unsure of where he was actually going.

When he got to the door, Gabriel kicked it to get the attention of anyone who might be inside.

After a moment, it swung open.

Gabriel got a brief look at the people inside [since when had Dumbledore come back?] before there was a shriek and a redheaded woman threw herself on Gabriel, prying Ginny from his hold and shaking her awake. Ginny startled awake and looked like she was about to cry as someone who must have been her mother hugged her tightly. Dumbledore, who was sitting behind the desk, was gazing at Gabriel in astonishment while McGonagall, who appeared to be supporting herself on the fireplace, was taking large, steadying breaths. The phoenix was sitting on the edge of the desk, and Lockhart had edged into the office behind Gabriel, as if slightly unsure whether he should be there.

Gabriel suddenly found himself being trapped in a tight hug as well. Ginny's mother was talking rapidly in his ear.

"You saved her! You saved her! _How_ did you do it?"

"I think that's a question we should all like answered," said Dumbledore, recovering his 'friendly grandfather look. "Would you like a chair, Harry?"

"Sure," said Gabriel, who had yet to recover from the uncomfortable pins and needles feeling in his limbs. He sat down, looked around and all the expectant faces, and began talking.

It took several hours and a lot of creative bullshitting for the entire story to get out and sound like something that could have been reasonably accomplished by someone who was not an archangel. Maybe reasonable wasn't the right word. 'Within the realm of very lucky possibility' would have been better.

"Well," Dumbledore's eyes were twinkling by the time Gabriel had finished. "I should think that you have been incredibly brave and perhaps more than a bit lucky, mister Potter. I am surprised, though, at the sword which you have with you."

"What about it?" Gabriel asked, looking down.

"Perhaps you should take a closer look at the blade," Dumbledore suggested.

Gabriel did so, pulling it out carefully and examining the blade. He almost hit something.

_You've got to be joking._

The name 'GRYFFINDOR' had been engraved along the length of the blade.

"Only those who are worthy can pull the sword from the Hat," said Dumbledore cheerfully. "But now is not the time for discussing legends! I believe Miss Weasley would benefit from a trip to the Hospital wing, and perhaps a cup of hot cocoa. You were not injured, were you Harry?"

"I'm fine." Gabriel replied. "A cleaning spell wouldn't go wrong though."

McGonagall looked torn between lecturing Gabriel and congratulating him, but she raised her wand and cleaned off his robes anyway. Gabriel glanced down at the now much drier material. "Thanks."

"For you, Mister Potter," Dumbledore said, "I think, perhaps, two hundred points to Ravenclaw-" Gabriel looked at him in shock. "-And an award for special services to the school. You did, of course, splinter many school rules into pieces, but I think on this occasion it can be excused."

"Thanks," Gabriel said again. "Oh, and before I forget-" He dug into his pocket and tossed the diary onto the table. "You might want to take care of that. I've no idea what it is-" A blatant lie. "-But it seems dangerous. Could I go back up to my dorm?"

"Of course," said McGonagall. "I think that would be best...are you sure you don't need to go to the Hospital wing?"

"I'm sure," said Gabriel as he closed the door behind him. He faintly heard Lockhart ask something, and wondered what they were going to do with the man now that he remembered nothing.

* * *

**SUPER SUPER LONG CHAPTER TODAY**

**I hope you enjoyed the Chamber of Secrets. Details were unashamedly copied from the book. Also, you can look forward to a guest appearance in the next chapter! I don't know whether he'll stick around but he'll be there and possibly show up again later in the series.**

**Read and review!**


	19. In Which A Sibling Appears

**Yaaay we're almost to book three! hang with me guys this is gonna take a while to finish.**

**This chapter's going to be a lot shorter after the last one, but I don't care because the last one was 7,000+ words and I am not doing that again. I might just go back and add this to the end of the last chapter if it's too short, but most likely it'll end up its own chapter.  
**

**Plus how much could really happen between the end of the year and King's Cross**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter**

* * *

The feast which occurred that night was singular for a lot of reasons. There was the fact that before it started the entire Weasley family [all four of the boys currently at Hogwarts] had piled on him just outside the door in a huge mess of them all trying to say thanks at once for saving their sister. Second, everyone was in their pajamas, as it was nearly eleven at night and they had all been asleep. The entire hall was in a festive mood, even though the reason for the feast had never been officially announced.

The best bit was probably when the doors banged open and all the people who had been Petrified came streaming into the hall to loud cheers from everyone, even some of the Slytherins. Hermione had thrown herself at Michael and Gabriel, who hugged back just as hard. Hagrid, the gamekeeper who had been arrested, turned up at three thirty AM and was beaming so widely that he could barely eat.

Ravenclaw had been put in the lead for the House cup and people kept coming over to ask Gabriel how he'd won them and if he'd really rescued Ginny Weasley. Gabriel redirected all of them and concentrated on the feast, telling Michael and Hermione that he'd explain later when they didn't have an audience.

McGonagall stood up near the end to announce that exams had been cancelled as a school treat ["Oh no!" said Hermione] and Dumbledore announced later that, as Lockhart had to go and get his memory back, he would not be returning next year to teach Defense class. This was also greeted with cheers even more deafening, and someone standing outside the Great Hall might have wondered if an explosion had gone off inside.

The rest of June passed in a heat haze. Apparently, Draco's father had been kicked off the school board for unknown reasons, which meant that all Gabriel saw of him was Draco moping around. All Defense classes had been cancelled, since Lockhart was gone, and these periods were now spent spread out by the lake on the lawn. It was during one of these times that Gabriel fully explained what had happened in the Chamber [the made-up version] and Hermione and Michael both looked like they were about to hit him.

"And you didn't think to ask for help?" Michael said, slightly angrily. "I could have come too and helped!"

"Er-" Gabriel was a bit taken aback. "I supposed I didn't want to drag you into all that."

"Well." Michael didn't seem satisfied with the explanation. "Next time you go on some crazy adventure, we're coming with you, alright?"

"Sure."

In what seemed like no time it everyone was packing up their things and getting ready to board the Hogwarts express back to King's Cross and preparing for the summer. Michael spent half of the ride telling everyone about the trip he was going to take to Ireland that year. They had several visitors - the Weasleys all piled in at one point, which was luckily after Draco ducked in to tell them he was glad Hogwarts hadn't been closed. It wasn't a 'sorry you were Petrified' or even a 'too bad about the giant Basilisk', but it was closer than Draco had been last year to actually being nice to Hermione.

Gabriel thought the compartment had to have magically stretched itself, to fit four Weasleys [the twins, Ron, and Ginny] Hermione, Michael, and himself. There were a lot of introductions and the twins kept speaking over each other and even Gabriel found it slightly difficult to tell them apart when they were being intentionally confusing, mostly because looking at their souls would have been cheating.

The oldest brother, who was apparently named Percy, was nowhere to be seen, but according to the others that was normal.

Gabriel was just wondering when he'd become such a fast friend of theirs. The three boys acted like they'd known him for years - Ron maybe less so, but he was no less enthusiastic. He and Michael were in the middle of an intense debate about Quidditch, which Hermione was watching with some amusement from her seat next to Ginny, who kept glancing over at Gabriel, who was sitting on Hermione's other side.

There was an Exploding Snap tournament which Hermione begged off of and which lasted until they were nearly to London, resulting in some burned fingertips and several sooty faces. Ginny waved goodbye frantically as they got off the train, the Weasleys heading for other parts of the station while Gabriel and Hermione walked back into the Muggle world.

Hermione sped off to talk to her parents and Gabriel made his way outside, finding a bench to sit down on and wondering if he really wanted to put in the effort of taking the bus and then walking back to Privet Drive and spend another summer with the Dursleys. He could just get a room somewhere, right? Gabriel thought he looked old enough to pass for at least a small fourteen, which could definitely get him into the Leaky Cauldron. Of course, that would mean he'd have to spend his entire summer in the magical world, which was full of people who knew him on sight and might stalk him for autographs.

Gabriel was pondering the pros and cons of finding someplace in Muggle London when someone spoke incredulously from just in front of him.

"Oh, Father, I don't believe this!"

Gabriel looked up sharply and his mouth almost dropped open.

"This is too good," the man said gleefully. "Absolutely hilarious! Look at you! You're _miniature!_"

"Balthazar, what the fuck are you doing here?"

* * *

"I have to do what?"

"Technically I need someone to take care of me-"

"I can see that."

"Don't make fun of me you dick. Anyway I'm not spending another minute with those people, laws be damned."

"So you're asking me to-"

"Don't make me say it."

"Alright, but it's not like I have a house or anything."

"You can zap one up, can't you? Trick a realtor into thinking they've sold the place to you."

"And what about you?"

"Contrary to my vessel, I can take care of myself, Balthazar. You can still have your parties and drink yourself stupid. I might join in."

"You can't join in, you're a minor!"

"Don't laugh at me!"

"What have you even been doing this whole time? I thought you were dead."

"Please. You think I'd let myself be killed that easily?"

"Lucifer's gone, you know."

"Yeah, I'm the one who gave the Winchesters their clue."

"On that note, really? 'Dying' defending them?"

"Hey, that was all for Kali."

"That's not much better, Gabriel."

"Shows what you know. That woman was amazing."

"I don't need to hear that."

"Shouldn't have asked. Are you going to help me out or not?"

Sigh. "Fine. I'll find a place somewhere and get everything settled."

"Excellent."

"And as a side note, what the hell is in that trunk?"

"Long story. House first. And nothing too small."

"Gabriel. You underestimate me."

* * *

**Yeeeeeaaaaaaaah super super short. The opposite of the last chapter. There wasn't a whole lot to do, really, and I almost feel bad for putting up a chapter this short. But anyway.**

**Read and review? The button is right down there! You know you want to.  
**

**And by the way, what did you think of Balthazar's appearance?**


	20. Sirius Black

**THIRD YEAR ALRIGHT SIRIUS BLACK REMUS LUPIN AKA WOLFY WEREWOLF MC WEREWOLFYPANTS**

**I'm sorry but I had to put that out there about his name. Even his parent's names are wolfy for God's sake.**

**Ahem. Anyway.**

**I hope you all are looking forward to this as much as I am! I imagine Gabriel and Balthazar would get on well. Like, too well. Especially if Gabriel was the proper age.**

**Also: nearly 160 reviews?! You guys are awesome.**

**Just got back from seeing Guardians of the Galaxy, and thought it was awesome! I was surprised that Lee Pace played the villain, though.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter**

* * *

"Balthazar you forgot to lock the door again!"

"I don't fucking care Gabriel. What could possibly happen? We'll get robbed?"

Gabriel peered around the corner as the door shut behind him. "You're the one who agreed to this you know."

"I do and I'm regretting every second of it."

"Come on, I basically raised you! Be nice to your older brother."

"You're not much older than me now."

"Shut up." A conveniently located empty bottle was lobbed at Balthazar's head. "And clean up after yourself will you? I've been stumbling over bottles and discarded lingerie all summer."

"You're just jealous that I'm getting more action than you."

"I'm ending this conversation."

Balthazar raised himself up off the couch slightly. "What, do you have homework?"

"Goodbye Balthazar." Gabriel rolled his eyes as he made his way up the staircase towards the room he'd claimed for himself.

"Have fun with school!"

"Go back to sleep!"

* * *

Balthazar had come through on his agreement, especially since Gabriel assured him that it would only be for over the summer. He'd found a glamorous house out in the London suburbs - and why would they settle for anything less? - and promptly tricked the dealer into thinking she'd sold it to them and been paid already while Gabriel waited out of the way.

They'd been living there for only two months and it was better than the Dursleys in perhaps every way, except for Balthazar's parties, and those were only bad because Gabriel had been forbidden from attending. He'd pointed out that he was at least half a millenia older than Balthazar, and Balthazar had shot back that his vessel was still only thirteen and he wasn't going to get laid like that. Gabriel had then asked Balthazar what he thought of Gabriel hiding all the liquor in the house. Balthazar had just snubbed him and Gabriel made good on his promise to get rid of it all.

The problem of living with his brother was that his brother actually had Grace to spare.

Not the Gabriel didn't, but his didn't come back nearly as fast. Balthazar could snap up some wine and have the energy back in a few hours, while Gabriel [who was an archangel and should by all rights have been more powerful than someone who was barely higher than a seraph], if he did the same, would have to wait at least a month before it came back. The rate had improved, but not by much.

July was quickly drawing to a close and Gabriel was, indeed, sitting in his room doing homework. He'd done most of it already, hoping to get it out of the way, and all that was left was a long, boring essay on the history of witch-hunts. Gabriel didn't understand why the teachers were so fond of giving summer homework.

Hermione had written plenty of letters - her family was apparently traveling as well, since the last one had been written from France. She'd sent him a miniature model of the Arc de Triomphe for his birthday, which Gabriel only vaguely remembered - it wasn't like the Dursleys had ever celebrated it.

Michael had also sent letters, including moving pictures of nir and nir mother in various locations, which Gabriel stuck inside the cover of one of his books. He'd enjoyed the letters, thinking that Michael and Hermione had certainly had more exciting summers than he'd had.

There had been a report on the news one day, while Balthazar had been flicking through the channels, on some sort of armed robber who had escaped from prison. Gabriel wouldn't have paid it any mind if Hermione hadn't mentioned the man as well, saying that he was actually a magical criminal who had killed several Muggles and was the only prisoner to ever escape from someplace called Azkaban.

Gabriel had mentioned this to Balthazar, who seemed completely disinterested and continued lounging about. Gabriel wasn't entirely sure what Balthazar spent all his time doing and didn't really want to know.

His Hogwarts letter had come the morning of August first, and Balthazar had nearly struck the owl out of the sky in annoyance before Gabriel reminded him that that was how wizards sent letters. Balthazar spent the rest of the afternoon laughing as Gabriel was forced to get him to sign a permission slip of all things. Gabriel dumped a bottle of wine over his brother in retaliation, and Balthazar did eventually sign it in swooping cursive.

Plans to meet his friends in Diagon Alley were still tentative when Gabriel arrived there, Balthazar gone to who knew where until the next summer. He'd be staying at the Leaky Cauldron until September like he did every year, and Tom the bartender didn't even look surprised to see him.

"Thought you'd show up eventually," he said leisurely. "You're room's all ready for you."

Slightly surprised by the fact that he'd been expected, Gabriel had dumped his things in the room and immediately gone to see if anyone he knew was in the alley.

He found no one yet, and there was another crowd in the shops along the alley, though this time it was in the broom shop and not the bookstore. Gabriel spent all of three seconds wondering what was so interesting before moving on to get his supplies and possibly stop for ice cream. Maybe getting a bit of that first wouldn't hurt...

When he did find Hermione, it was with her arms clamped around a rather ugly ginger cat. She was much browner than usual, probably from her time in France.

"What on earth is that?" Gabriel asked, keeping a safe distance as he regarded the animal.

"'It' is Crookshanks," Hermione said huffily. "Mum and dad said I could get a pet."

"That's not a pet, it's practically a creature."

"Don't be so rude!"

"It looks like it ran face-first into a brick wall."

"He," Hermione snapped, and Gabriel realized that he may have gone a bit too far. A summer with Balthazar had done nothing for his brain-to-mouth filter. "And he's half kneazle, for your information."

"Half what?"

Hermione went on to explain the intricacies of magical species as Gabriel began walking with her down the alley. She still had a tight hold on Crookshanks, who was allowing himself to be carried quite placidly.

"I've still got to get all my books," Hermione said. "I've got some of them already, of course, and I ran into Ron when I was getting mine. We had both signed up for Care of Magical Creatures, the assistant nearly cried when we told him we wanted two of the course books..."

"You mean the sentient ones in the window?"

"Yes." Hermione seemed amused by his description. "You're not taking it though, right?"

"Nah. I signed up for Ancient Runes and Divination." Ancient Runes, at least, would be rather easy, seeing as Gabriel could probably speak all the languages already. "And speaking of courses, did you seriously go ahead and sign up for all of them?"

"I did," said Hermione in a dignified manner. "And it's already been cleared with Professor McGonagall, so you can't go telling me that it's impossible."

"You're going to have ten hours of homework a night, you realize."

"You're exaggerating, Harry."

They ended up sitting at Fortescue's - the ice cream place - together, waiting to see if Michael would come by. Several people passed that they did know, but usually only vaguely, though Ron Weasley waved as he passed.

Michael didn't show up until later, a bag stuffed full of packages by nir side. Apparently ne'd been forced to do all nir shopping first before ne went off looking for them.

"Well, it's a good thing you showed up before Harry tried to order any more ice cream," said Hermione, casting a glance at Gabriel.

"I refuse to regret enjoying it," said Gabriel. "You're just biased because of your parents."

"Too many sweets are bad for you, Harry."

"And so I'll regret it when I'm older." _No I won't._

Hermione just rolled her eyes and turned back to Michael. "So how was your holiday?"

"Great," Michael said eagerly, drawing up a chair. "We went to see this place called the Giant's Causeway, it was brilliant. There weren't any actual giants, of course, the Muggles just call it that."

"I think I've heard of it," said Gabriel, who thought he remembered visiting the place before.

"It was awesome," Michael told him, going on to describe what the place had been like, while both Gabriel and Hermione listened. Hermione then went on to talk about the places she'd visited in France and how much she'd learned there.

"I had to rewrite my entire History of Magic essay to include some of it," she said, stroking Crookshanks. "I hope Professor Binns doesn't mind, it's two whole rolls of parchment more than he asked for."

Michael muttered something under nir breath which made Gabriel snort, and Hermione look at them both severely. "And what about you, Harry?" she asked. "I know you probably didn't go anywhere over the summer, but-"

"I got a new guardian," Gabriel said idly, stirring the melted ice cream in his dish.

Both of his friends did double-takes at that. "You what?" asked Michael, as though ne thought ne'd misheard.

"I got away from my relatives," Gabriel elaborated. "Apparently there's someone else who could have had custody and petitioned for it, some uncle on l-" He caught himself before he said _Lily Potter. _"-My mum's side. He's cool."

"And he got custody just like that?"

"The Dursleys were perfectly willing to let him. I don't think there was any love lost." Gabriel said sarcastically.

"So what's your uncle like?"

Gabriel had to quickly think of something about Balthazar that wouldn't make him sound like a poor guardian. "He's got this big house out in London. Not too close to the city."

"That sounds nice." Hermione looked unsure what to think of the sudden news. "Do you like it with him?"

Gabriel mentally compared Balthazar to the Dursleys. "It's much better."

* * *

When they returned to the Leaky Cauldron, it was to find that Michael and Hemione's parents had somehow been drawn into a conversation with the Weasleys, and they were all sitting together at one long table to the back of the pub.

The table of redheads was just as enthusiastic as they had been at the end of the last school year, and the pair of twins were particularly exuberant with saying hello in an overdone and obviously joking manner. Their mother, however, did not seem nearly as pleased with their antics.

"How are you, dear?" She said graciously to Gabriel, as they all sat down. It was a bit crowded, with thirteen of them [counting the parents] stuffed around two tables pushed together.

"Fine." Gabriel managed to squeeze himself into the only empty chair, between Hermione and someone he recognized as being one of the Gryffindor prefects. "Summer was good."

"Yeah," agreed one of the boys. "We were in Egypt for a month, you know."

"It seems like everyone's been traveling this year," said Mr. Granger, looking amused. "Hermione was quite enthusiastic, learning about Magical France."

"France, really?" asked the Weasley patriarch. "I've never been, though I've heard it's quite nice."

Gabriel tuned out the adult's conversation. They were grouped at one end of the table, all five of them, and all of the students taking up the rest of the space and chatting about various things.

"They still haven't caught Sirius Black, you know," Michael was saying as Gabriel's attention drifted back to the conversation. "It's insane, they still don't know how he broke out of Azkaban-"

"Azkaban?" Gabriel interrupted.

"The wizard prison," Hermione explained for him. "It's out in the middle of the North Sea, I think."

"No one's ever escaped before," one of the twins, Fred probably, put in.

"It's _impossible," _said George, with a dramatic gesture.

"And he's the first to ever get out."

"Maybe it's because he's bonkers."

"Enough," said Mrs. Weasley sharply. "There's no need to talk about things like Sirius Black at the table. How about we talk about the new third-year classes instead?"

* * *

After dinner, everyone who didn't get in their cars to go home retired to various rooms upstairs from the pub. A loud argument next door had begun, over a missing tonic or something and a lost badge. Gabriel rolled his eyes and wished he knew how to use a silencing charm. He rustled through his trunk and discovered that he'd left one of his books downstairs. The stairs creaked underneath him, seemingly louder now that it was later and so many people had left.

There were still two people downstairs, however - the Weasley parents were arguing over something.

"...insists on treating Harry like a child..."

Curious at the mention of his vessel's name, Gabriel drew closer.

"...the truth would terrify him!" Gabriel darted behind a pillar, now very interested in the conversation. "Do you really want to send the boy back to school with that hanging over him? Arthur, he was happy!"

"I don't want to make him miserable, I want to put him on guard!" Mr. Weasley retorted. "Molly, he saved Ginny's life last year, I'm trying to help repay that favor!"

There was a long pause. Mr. Weasley continued. "Molly, they say Sirius Black's mad, and maybe he is, but he was clever enough to escape from Azkaban, and that's supposed to be impossible. It's been a _month _now and no one's seen a hide nor hair of him, and I don't care what Fudge keeps telling the Daily Prophet, we're no nearer to catching Black than inventing self-spelling wands. The only thing we know for sure is what Black's after-"

"But surely Harry will be perfectly safe at Hogwarts."

"We thought Azkaban was perfectly safe. If Black can break out of there-"

"But no one's really sure that Black's after Harry-"

Something thumped loudly. Mr. Weasley must have hit the table.

"Molly, how many times do I have to tell you? They didn't report it in the press because Fudge wanted it kept quiet, but Fudge went out to Azkaban the night Black escaped. The guards told Fudge that Black's been talking in his sleep for a while now, always the same words: 'He's at Hogwarts'. Black is deranged, Molly, and he wants Harry dead. If you ask me, he thinks murdering Harry will bring You-Know-Who back to power. Black lost everything the night Harry stopped You-Know-Who, and he's had twelve years in Azkaban to brood on that..."

Gabriel leaned closer in the ensuing silence. This was something he hadn't at all expected when he'd heard of Black's escape. Who was Sirius Black? Just a Death Eater, or something more? So many of them had escaped prosecution, from what Gabriel had read, so what made this man any different?

"Well, Arthur," Mrs. Weasley eventually spoke. "You must do what you think is right. But you're forgetting Albus Dumbledore. I don't think anything could hurt Harry while he's at Hogwarts, while Dumbledore's headmaster. I suppose he knows about all this?"

"Of course he knows. We had to ask him if he minds the Azkaban guards stationed at the entrances to the school. He wasn't happy about it, but he agreed.

"Not happy? Why shouldn't he be happy, if they're there to catch Black?"

"Dumbledore isn't fond of the Azkaban guards," Mr. Weasley said heavily, and Gabriel wondered what sort of people they had guarding the prison. "Nor am I, if it comes to that...but when you're dealing with a wizard like Black, you sometimes have to join forces with those you'd rather avoid."

"If they save Harry-"

"-Then I will never say another word against them. It's late, Molly, we'd better go up."

Chairs scraped and Gabriel ducked farther away. He listened as steps went up the stairs, fading away slowly as the two Weasleys left to wherever their room was. Coming out slowly, Gabriel retrieved the forgotten book and ascended to his own room.

So Sirius Black was after him, or at least his vessel, because of what had happened on Halloween. The man, according to one article Gabriel had read earlier in his stay at the alley, had murdered thirteen people with one curse.

While not very terrifying, Gabriel knew he'd have to be careful. If Black cornered him with other people around, Gabriel would be unable to use anything but magic, leaving himself rather helpless, and if Black did manage to get a lucky shot in he'd have a hard time explaining why he wasn't dead to any witnesses.

Gabriel sighed internally and wondered why his years in the magical world were always so fraught with peril. Maybe he had gotten the bad luck from the broken mirror in first year.

* * *

**Tadaaaaa. I hoped you liked the bits with Balthazar. I've also decided that, while the Weasley's aren't a main part, they've all decided to sort of take in Gabriel since he saved their little sister. Basically they're not major players but they are going to play a larger part than they have been.  
**

**Read and review!**


	21. The Dementors

**Already a new chapter, because I enjoy writing and procrastinating homework.**

**For the Dementor scene, I've decided that they still affect angels - and even so, Gabriel doesn't have a whole lot of Grace. And if it didn't affect him, where would the fun in that be? We all enjoy putting characters in difficult situations.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter**

* * *

King's Cross was as busy as usual. Gabriel had once again been offered a ride to the station, this time by the Weasleys, who as it turned out own a magically extended Ford Anglia. The front seat had been stretched so far that it resembled a park bench, to say nothing of the rest of the seats.

"You know," Gabriel had said as he scooted over to make room for the others, "I have to admit, I was wondering how we were all going to fit in here."

The trip had been surprisingly short, given the amount of traffic, and soon enough they were all being packed on to the train as parents sent them off with hugs and promises to write. Gabriel was about to walk onto the train when someone pulled him aside.

"Harry - a moment, please?"

It was Mr. Weasley. Gabriel allowed himself to be pulled off to an out-of-the-way bit on the platform.

"There's something I've got to tell you," he said in a low voice.

"I actually overheard you last night," Gabriel told him straight away. "Left my book down in the pub."

"Ah," Mr. Weasley looked uncomfortable. "That's not the way I'd have chosen for you to find out."

"It's fine, really." Gabriel told him.

"Harry, you must be very scared-"

"I'm fine, I really am." Gabriel was mentally rolling his eyes. He noticed that Mr. Weasley was looking at him doubtfully. "Seriously. I mean, he can't be worse than Voldemort, can he?"

Mr. Weasley had flinched at the name. Gabriel had forgotten how sensitive people were about it. "I-" He looked unsure what to say. "Well, just don't-"

"Sorry," said Gabriel quickly, talking over him. "Train's about to leave, got to go." He darted out of the way and swung himself onto the nearest car, trunk thudding as he pulled it up the short staircase. Gabriel trailed down the hallway and almost walked past a compartment in search of an empty one before he realized it contained Michael and Hermione.

"Hey!" he said, pulling the door open. "Anyone feel like helping me with my trunk?"

"I'm sure you can handle it, Harry." A large wickerwork basket was next to Hermione, and ginger hair poking through the holes assured Gabriel that it was Crookshanks the cat.

"Who's he?" Gabriel asked, pushing his trunk onto the luggage rack. A man in slightly tattered robes was sitting in the corner on Michael's other side, leaning against the window and obviously asleep.

"Professor R J Lupin," said Hermione promptly. Ron, who had followed Gabriel in, looked agog.

"How d'you know that?" He asked, astonished. Hermione pointed to the luggage rack.

"It's on his case." Sure enough, there was a suitcase with the initials and name written on it in faded gold leaf. The suitcase seemed just as tattered and used as the robes - and now that Gabriel looked closer, the man was a bit worn as well, with a lined face and traces of parallel white scars that must have been made by some sort of claws. His hair was flecked with gray, and Gabriel wasn't surprised that the man was asleep - he looked absolutely exhausted.

"Wonder what he teaches?" Michael whispered as Gabriel sat down next to the man, leaving a bit of space in between them.

"Defense, of course," Gabriel answered. "What other position is empty?"

"I hope he's up to it," Ron said, aware that he was a bit of an outsider and trying to break the ice. "He looks like one good curse would finish him off."

"I'm sure he'll be fine," Hermione said. "Dumbledore wouldn't hire someone who was too incompetent to teach."

"I'm sorry," Gabriel said disbelievingly. "Am I the only one who remembers Lockhart?"

Ron tried and failed to muffle a snort of laughter as Hermione glared at Gabriel with no real feeling behind the look. Even Michael was grinning a bit.

"Speaking of new things," Michael began, "What do you think of Hogsmeade?"

"I've heard it's the only entirely magical settlement in Britain," Hermione said promptly. "D'you know much about it?" she asked Ron.

"Not really," he said. "I mean, not stuff like that. Fred and George have told me about the shops, though. There's a Dervish and Banges, and a Zonko's of course...oh, and Honeydukes."

"I'm looking forward to _that_," said Michael, still grinning. "Harry'll probably be in heaven."

"Why, what's Honeydukes?"

"It's a candy shop," Michael told Gabriel.

"Excellent." Gabriel grinned back. "Good thing I got my permission slip signed."

"They've got everything," Ron said happily. "Pepper Imps, great fat Chocoballs...and these really excellent Sugar Quills you can suck in class and just look like you're thinking of what to write next-"

"But Hogsmeade's a very interesting place, isn't it?" Hermione asked them as a group. "In _Sites of Historical Sorcery, _it says the inn was the headquarters for the 1612 goblin rebellion, and the Shrieking Shack's supposed to be the most severely haunted building in Britain-"

Ron was plainly not listening to a word she said, as he had not stopped extolling the virtues of the candy shop while she spoke. Gabriel elbowed the boy harshly and asked Hermione, "What about Hogwarts? They've got plenty of ghosts."

"There are more in the Shack, I suppose," said Hermione, while Ron put a hand to his side and looked at Gabriel incredulously. "Of course, nothing's been heard from it in ages-"

"Heard?" asked Michael, glancing towards her and away from the window, which ne'd been staring out. "Don't you mean seen?"

"No one's gone in it either," Hermione explained. "Apparently the villagers used to hear really terrifying howls and screams from the Shack on some nights, and no one's ever gone in since then."

"Sounds a bit more violent than the Hogwarts ghosts," commented Gabriel.

Hermione nodded absentmindedly. She was undoing the latch on the wickerwork basket which held Crookshanks, and as it fell open the cat leaped onto her lap, stretching.

Ron was staring at it. "What in Merlin's name is that?"

"It's a cat," Hermione snapped.

"Yeah, and didn't you consider that I've got a pet rat?" Ron pointed angrily to the lump in his shirt pocket as Gabriel wrinkled his nose. Hermione was about to retort when Lupin stirred and they all froze.

Fortunately, he didn't wake up and instead settled down again.

As the train moved north the scene outside became steadily wilder as they moved farther into the highlands. The traditional game of Exploding Snap had been forgone, because of their sleeping companion, and when the trolley cart came by they started a whispered competition to see who could get the best Chocolate Frog cards which even Hermione joined in on. Crookshanks sat on her lap the whole time, and Gabriel rather thought that it looked like the cat was eyeing the rat in Ron's pocket.

Mid-afternoon, when it had started raining outside, Draco Malfoy showed up.

Ron looked up and he had nearly stood up angrily when Gabriel pulled him back down. "Hello," he said despite the angry Weasley sitting next to him.

"Ah-" Draco had obviously not expected someone new to be in the compartment - besides Lupin, of course. He looked unsure of his welcome. "I suppose I'll-"

"Come in?" Gabriel suggested. "I bet you can't find a card better than Bathilda Bagshot."

"I've _got _plenty of cards better than Bagshot," Draco scoffed as he closed the door behind him, still keeping a wary eye on Ron. "Give me those."

"Say please."

"What?"

The train sped ever further north and the atmosphere in the compartment began to relax, though Ron and Draco never spoke directly to each other. Lupin kept sleeping, despite the rain rattling against the train and the wind roaring by and the rattle of the wheels.

The window was completely black and no matter what any of them did, they couldn't see out. Ron tried to peer out. "We must be nearly there by now." No sooner had the words left his mouth than the train began to slow.

"Ah, brilliant, I'm starving."

"We can't be there yet," objected Hermione, checking her watch.

"Why are we stopping, then?" asked Michael trying in vain to see something outside the window.

The train was getting slower and slower. As the noise of it moving faded away, the storm outside howled even louder. It came to a complete stop with a jolt and distant heavy thuds told them that people's luggage was falling out of the racks. Gabriel had to hurriedly push to keep a dark blue one in place and stop it from hitting everyone sitting on the opposite side. Without warning, they were plunged into darkness as the lamps extinguished themselves.

"What's going on?" Draco demanded from what sounded like directly in front of Gabriel.

"Ouch!" Hermione gasped. "That was my foot!"

Gabriel reached behind him, accidentally felt up Ron's knee, and then sat down again.

"D'you think we've broken down?" Ron asked.

"If we have, the train picked a horrible time to stop working."

There was a squeaking sound, and a dim black outline of someone who was probably Michael became visible. He had wiped a bit of the window clean and was again peering out.

"There's something moving out there," he said slowly. "I think people are coming aboard..."

"I'm going to go and ask the driver what's going on," said Hermione's voice. Something shuffled in the dark and the compartment door squeaked open. There was a thud and two loud "Ow!"s.

"Who's there?"

"Hello?"

"Ginny?"

"Hermione?"

"What are you doing?"

"I was looking for Ron-"

"Come in-"

"Don't sit here!" Gabriel hissed as someone moved in front of him. "I'm here!"

"Ow," someone groaned.

"Quiet!" A hoarse voice spoke.

Evidently, Lupin had woken up at last. There were shuffling movements from the corner he was in, and no one spoke.

There was a soft crackling noise and a shivery light filled the compartment. Lupin appeared to be holding a handful of fire. His face was as tired as ever, but his eyes were alert and wary.

"Stay where you are," he said, voice still hoarse, and carefully eased to his feet, still holding the fire. He was holding it out in front of himself, as if warding something off.

The door slid open before he could reach it.

Gabriel's Grace flared in response to whatever creature was standing in the doorway. It was cloaked and towered to the ceiling, the hood completely covering its face.

Before anyone could look at it for more than a split second, whatever it was drew a long, rattling breath, and an intense cold permeated the compartment. Something rushed up to meet Gabriel and he was drowning in the cold, a hopeless feeling permeating him before his Grace could do anything [not like he could have done much with it in this state] and as if from far away Gabriel heard someone speaking that he distinctly remembered...

_Amateur hocus-pocus...don't forget...you learned all your tricks from me, little brother..._

Acute terror seized Gabriel but before he could try and struggle away from the memory someone else shouted.

"Harry! Wake up!"

He was being slapped again.

"Harry! _Harry!_"

Gabriel blinked his eyes open again. He wasn't aware of having closed them._  
_

The lanterns had come back on, and as the floor was shaking beneath him Gabriel guessed that the train had started again. he had somehow ended up on the floor instead of in his seat. Everyone was kneeling over him with wide eyes except for Lupin, who was standing by the door with concerned eyes on him. Gabriel felt slightly shaky as he sat up, which dissipated soon enough, and Hermione rushed to try and prop him up.

"Hermione, I'm alright."

"You just fainted!" she shrieked at him.

"Did I?"

A loud snap made them all jump. Lupin was breaking an enormous bar of chocolate into pieces.

"Here," he said, handing Gabriel a particularly large piece. "Eat it. It'll help."

Gabriel, while never one to turn down chocolate, held it for a moment. "What was that?"

"A dementor," Lupin answered, now handing out chocolate to everyone. "One of the Azkaban guards."

Gabriel's heart sank slightly. "_Those _are the things that are going to be around all year? Who thought putting them around kids was a good idea?"

"Eat," Lupin repeated, glancing towards the piece of chocolate Gabriel still held. "And apparently, Minister Fudge."

Gabriel took a bite as he glowered over the thought of those things being around all year. The candy seemed to help chase away the lingering cold, and Gabriel hauled himself back onto the seat. Lupin disappeared out the door and walked away down the hall.

"Are you sure you're okay, Harry?" Hermione asked. She was still watching him worriedly, as though he might keel over at any moment.

"I'm fine," Gabriel repeated. "What happened?"

"Well - that thing - the Dementor - it stood there and looked around - I mean I think it did - and you-" Michael seemed unable to continue nir sentence.

"You went sort of rigid," Ron picked up. He still looked a bit pale. "And then you fell over and slid off the seat onto the floor - I thought you were having some sort of attack-"

"And then Professor Lupin told the dementor 'None of us is hiding Sirius Black under our cloaks. Go.' And when it didn't leave he used some sort of spell and it just glided off." Hermione said.

Ginny, who was curled in the opposite corner looking about as well as Gabriel had felt, let out a small sob. Hermione put a comforting arm around her shoulders. Gabriel, glancing at what remained of his chocolate, offered it to her.

"Thanks," she said miserably, taking it. It wasn't hard to guess that, based on what Gabriel had been forced to remember, she had had a flashback of the Chamber. Gabriel cursed himself for not remembering nightmares last year, but it would be a bit strange now to put a couple fingers on her head and anyway he needed to conserve his Grace.

"But - none of you fell off your seats?"

"No," Michael answered. "Ginny was shaking like mad though."

Lupin entered again before the conversation could go any further. "We'll be at Hogwarts in ten minutes," he informed them. "Are you alright, Harry?"

Gabriel didn't ask how the man knew his vessel's name. "Fine."

During the remained of the journey, no one spoke much. Draco had maintained a pale-faced silence ever since Gabriel had woken up, and as Gabriel composed a scathing letter to the Minister in his head they stopped at Hogsmeade station. There was the general clatter of pets being unloaded but it wasn't quite as noisy as usual. There was a freezing downpour of rain, driving down in icy sheets.

They couldn't get to a coach soon enough. All of them who had been in the compartment - even Draco - piled into one together. The thestrals were still there, and they seemed to walk a bit faster up to the school, as if just as eager to get out of the rain. Hermione and Michael kept casting anxious looks at Gabriel, who by now had fully recovered, thank you very much.

There were two more dementors at the gates. Gabriel closed his eyes tightly and felt a hand on his shoulder as he tried to remind himself that no, he could not smite them because A) he didn't have enough energy for all of them and B) there were other people in the coach he might accidentally blind.

At last, the carriage swayed to a halt and they all piled out. They joined the crowd swarming up the steps to get out of the rain and hurried through the giant oak front doors into the Entrance Hall.

It was strangely wet inside as well, and when Peeves appeared with an armful of water balloons Gabriel gave the poltergeist a withering glare, in absolutely no mood for pranks. Peeves zoomed off at once when he caught the look, which Ron watched bemusedly.

"That's weird," he said aloud, the words almost lost in the noise of the crowd around them. "I've never seen Peeves do anything like that before."

"Strange," Gabriel agreed as a voice called out "Potter! Granger!"

Gabriel and Hermione both turned around. It was Professor McGonagall, hurrying across the marble floor towards them, her hair drawn up into its customary bun.

"There's no need to look so worried," she told them as they came over. "I just want a word in my office - Corner, Weasley, Malfoy, move along."

Michael cast a glance behind nir, but Hermione and Gabriel were already being swept along out of the way and through the corridors. As they entered her office McGonagall settled behind her desk, pinning Gabriel with a stare as he and Hermione sat down.

"Professor Lupin sent ahead an owl to say you were ill on the train," she said. Gabriel tried to keep his eyeroll internal.

A knock sounded on the door and Madam Pomfrey came bustling in, zeroing in on Gabriel.

"I'm fine," Gabriel said loudly, but that didn't stop her.

"I suppose you were doing something dangerous again?" she asked, bending down to stare at him closely. She obviously had been told about last year's events.

"It was a dementor, Poppy," said McGonagall.

They exchanged a dark look, and Gabriel succeeded in leaning back far enough as the chair tilted backwards. Madam Pomfrey tugged him back down sharply, making the chair thud onto all fours.

"He should have some chocolate, at least," said Madam Pomfrey, who was now trying to peer into Gabriel's eyes.

"I've had some already," Gabriel retorted. "Lupin gave us some on the train."

"Professor Lupin," McGonagall corrected.

"Did he, now?" Madam Pomfrey seemed pleased. "Well, at least we've finally got a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher who knows his remedies."

"Are you sure you're alright, Potter?" McGonagall asked sharply.

"_Yes,_" Gabriel was getting thoroughly sick of people asking him that.

"Very well. Please wait outside, then, while I speak to Miss Granger about a small matter with her timetable," McGonagall said. "Then we can walk down to the Great Hall together."

Gabriel reentered the corridor, Madam Pomfrey going with him. She left, probably for the Hospital Wing, muttering about something under her breath. He needed to wait only a few minutes before both McGonagall and Hermione came out, the latter happy about something. Gabriel didn't have time to ask what had made her so thrilled as they were immediately led back down the staircase, and into the Great Hall.

The Hall was the same as usual, swamped with black and the long house tables lined with students. It was illuminated by the usual yellow candlelight, and as they entered they passed Flitwick carrying away a three-legged stool and the tattered Sorting Hat.

"Oh," Hermione said. "We've missed the Sorting!"

They split up at the doors, Hermione leaving for the Gryffindor table while Gabriel continued on to the Ravenclaw one. Michael was waiting for him, a seat reserved to nir right.

"What did she want?" Ne asked as Gabriel took the seat.

"Just wanted to see if I was okay."

"And are you?"

Gabriel tried very hard not to smack his head onto the table. Any response he might have had was cut off as Dumbledore stood up at the staff table, beard as long as ever and robes decorated with shooting stars that actually moved.

"Welcome!" He called out, the noise in the hall dying down as everyone listened. "Welcome all of you to another year at Hogwarts! I have a few things to say to you, and as one of them is very serious, I think it best to get it out of the way before you are befuddled by our excellent feast...

"As you have no doubt noticed when they searched the Hogwarts Express, this year we are playing host to the dementors of Azkaban, here on Ministry of Magic business." Dumbledore paused here, and Gabriel remembered what he had heard about the headmaster being upset with them being there.

"They are stationed at every entrance to the grounds," Dumbledore continued, and Gabriel groaned under his breath. "And while they are with us, I must make it plain that nobody to go out onto the grounds without permission. Dementors are not fooled by tricks or disguises-" Gabriel was sure that Dumbledore's eyes flashed to him, "-or even cloaks of invisibility. It is not in the nature of a dementor to understand pleading or excuses. I therefore warn each and every one of you to give them no reason to harm you. I look to our prefects, and our new Head Boy and Girl, to make sure none of you run afoul of the dementors."

Here Dumbledore paused and looked very seriously around the hall. No one was speaking, all of them listening carefully to the warning.

"On a happier note," Dumbledore said, "I am please to welcome two new teachers to our ranks this year.

"First, is Professor Remus Lupin, who will be taking over the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts." Lupin waved as scattered and altogether unenthusiastic applause sounded. Those who had been in the compartment clapped harder, though Lupin still looked a bit shabby next to all the other teachers. Snape was staring at Lupin as though he'd like nothing better than to see Lupin thrown out on his ass.

"What's up with Snape?" Michael muttered, also having noticed this.

"No idea."

"As to our second new appointment," Dumbledore announced, "Well, I am sorry to say that Professor Kettleburn retired at the end of last year in order to enjoy more time with his remaining limbs. However, I am delighted to announce that the position will be taken by none other than Rubeus Hagrid, who has agreed to take the job in addition to his gamekeeping duties."

The applause was barely better than the round Lupin had got but Hagrid, who was sitting red-faced at the end of the staff table, didn't seem to notice. He was beaming, most of the teachers as well clapping politely for him.

"As I believe that is everything of importance," Dumbledore said grandly, "Let the feast begin!"

He sat down as the tables filled with food, students eagerly setting upon it. Chatter and the clink of silverware soon filled the air, but at this point Gabriel was eager for it to end. He was fully aware of people leaning over to get a good look at him, the story of him fainting obviously having made its rounds. Dinner could not be over fast enough, and by the time dessert was cleared away Gabriel was trying to figure out whether he was actually tired or not. It was impossible to tell with his Grace like it was.

He drifted along with the other Ravenclaws as they walked to the Tower, someone at the front answering the riddle and letting them all pile into the common room. Gabriel straggled along into the third-year dorms and managed to locate the bed with his trunk at the end of it, falling onto it with a cushioned thump and wondering why he was being forced to deal with those cloaked monstrosities all year.

* * *

**Done! Poor Gabe, the dementors kinda freaked him out. Too bad! But really, I need some semblance of a plot to keep this story going.**

**Anyway, read and review, as per usual!**


	22. Tea Leaves and Boggarts

**I hope you all liked the dementor scene! I had a bit of fun writing it and trying to figure out how Gabriel might react.**

**A bit of clarification about his fear; it's not Lucifer. Rather, he's terrified of dying for good, and so the fear of that time in the Elysian [what if the blade hadn't worked, or if Lucifer had realized it was a fake] affected him and Lucifer got mixed into that. Death [the horseman] might not be that intimidating but I think personally Gabriel would be really afraid of actually dying, considering that it's unsure if angels have an afterlife. The bit with the Dementor is his worst memory, not exactly his fear. And another note about the boggart, he can't think of anything he's afraid of because really, Gabriel's a bit arrogant and wouldn't be the type of person to admit their fears.  
**

**Also, to that one reviewer, J. Palmgren? Yeah, I'm trying to keep it along the path of the original plot. It's called 'it's my story'. If you don't like my story, please don't leave a review with no actual suggestion as to how you think I could make it better.**

**And yeah, Gabriel doesn't feel threatened. Archangel, anyone? He's not motivated because he spent millenia not interfering and even human friends can't change that in only a couple years. He bungles stuff because he's running on very little Grace and is used to using that all the time to get things to work out his way. I'm sorry you feel like it's 'meh', but I write the way I want it to happen.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter**

* * *

When timetables were passed around at breakfast the next day, Gabriel barely spared a glance at it. The charm on his bag had persisted, which meant he still carried all his books around with him, and so whichever class he had first he'd probably have the supplies for it.

"New classes today," Michael observed. "We've got Divination first - you signed up for that, right?"

"Yeah," Gabriel agreed absentmindedly.

"Hey." Michael snapped nir fingers in front of Gabriel's face. "Wake up! You've been half asleep all morning."

Gabriel shoved Michael's hand away. "I'm just thinking."

"About what? The meaning of life?"

"Very funny." Gabriel had been successfully distracted by the idea of classes, as he wondered again how Hermione was going to get to all of hers. She'd signed up for all of them, after all.

Divination took ages to get to, mainly because it was in the North Tower, where neither Gabriel nor Michael had been before.

"There's... got to... be a... short cut," Michael panted as they climbed the seventh flight of stairs, emerging onto a landing which was empty save for an uninhabited painting of a stretch of grass.

"Maybe we go right?" Gabriel suggested.

"No, look, you can see a bit of the lake, that's south."

Something ambled into the painting. It was a fat little grey pony, which set itself to eating the painted grass. A short, stout knight in armor came chasing after it soon enough.

"Aha!" he yelled as he saw Gabriel and Michael. "And what villains are you that come before me? Come to mock my fall, perhaps?" He drew a sword which looked much too long for him and waved it around. "Draw, you knaves, you dogs!"

Gabriel was staring at the picture in some disbelief as a particularly wild swing sent the knight toppling over and buried his sword in the dirt.

"We're looking for the North Tower, actually," Michael said as the knight righted himself. The painted figure's anger vanished.

"A quest!" he shouted. "Come follow then, dear friends, and we shall go and complete our quest or perish bravely trying!" He tugged uselessly on the sword, failed to mount the pony, and then yelled "On foot then, dear comrades! Follow me!"

He set off at quite a fast pace through the paintings and the two raced after him. The knight burst through a painting of a group of women in crinolines and led them to a tightly spiralling staricase which seemed to go on forever. In a painting near the top he finally slowed, stopping his shouts of "On! On!" and waiting for Gabriel and Michael to catch up.

"I have taken you as far as I can go," he announced. "Fare thee well, brave fellows, and if you are ever in need of aid hesitate not to call upon Sir Cadogan!" He turned again and raced back the way they had come.

"That is the most mental painting I have ever met," Michael muttered as they took the last couple of steps and found the rest of the class milling around on the landing. Hermione was there as well.

There were no doors leading away. "Where's the classroom?" Michael asked blankly. Hermione pointed upwards, where on the ceiling there was a circular trapdoor which read 'Sybil Trelawney, Divination teacher'.

As the class whispered about how they were supposed to get up, the trapdoor was abruptly opened. A silvery ladder descended and Gabriel, glancing around, went first climbing up it.

He emerged into a very strange room. It looked like an old-fashioned, eccentric aunt's attic, an attic which at some point someone had tried to turn into a tea shop. There were a lot of little tables crammed into the room, with armchairs and stuffed pouffes clustered around them. Every source of light was draped in some sort of dark cloth, making the room very dim, and the fireplace not only made it ridiculously hot, but let off some sort of incense.

They all entered one by one, forming a small group around the trapdoor which the last person closed after themselves. Trelawney emerged from a shadowed portion of the room, startling all those near her. "Welcome," she said mistily. "How nice to see you all in the physical world at last. Sit, my children, sit."

Gabriel, Hermione, and Michael claimed a table together, Gabriel hurriedly taking one of the armchairs in an effort to avoid the stuffed stools. Trelawney swept to the front of the class, proceeding into a spiel about divination in the same misty voice. Gabriel glanced around the classroom - there was a shelf he hadn't noticed earlier in the corner, absolutely stuffed full of what looked like china teacups. Gabriel wondered what they were supposed to be for.

He was, of course, curious about telling the future - that was why he had signed up for this class in the first place. Sure, he'd seen prophets [of which this Trelawney was definitely not one, or he'd have known of her before] and psychics of all sorts, though those very rarely dealt in visions of the future. Gabriel was broken off from musing about Azazel's children when the class all rose to go towards the shelf and grab a teacup.

Gabriel fetched one of his own and sat back down, wondering what they were supposed to be doing since he'd paid absolutely no attention to the introductory speech.

"What are we doing?" he hissed to Michael.

"Don't tell me you weren't paying attention."

They were doing tea leaf reading, as it turned out, and it was the weirdest method of telling the future that Gabriel had ever come across. What were a bunch of leaves supposed to tell you?

He tried to drink the scalding tea quickly, pondering the benefits of just vanishing the mess - he'd never liked tea, even after thirteen years in England. The accent had stuck, much to the chagrin of Gabriel, whose vessel had had an American one for the last half millenia, at least. He glanced over at Michael, who had turned nir cup over and was letting the last bits of tea drip out of the bottom.

Ne turned it back over and peered into the cup before glancing at Gabriel. "We're supposed to switch," ne said. "Have you done yours yet?"

Gabriel quickly swilled the dregs around a bit. "Yeah." Michael took Gabriel's cup and handed over nirs.

There was a load of soggy brown stuff in the bottom, but apparently they were supposed to try and make out shapes. Maybe the bit to the left looked sort of like...Gabriel leaned over Michael's shoulder to read nir book.

"Don't you have your own?"

"Yours is already out."

Michael had something that might have been a cross, except it looked more like a plus sign or an inverted one, or perhaps an X. Gabriel dug into his bag after Michael held up nir book so that Gabriel couldn't read it.

"Alright," he muttered. "You've got something that might be a couple things so I'll just look up all of them. So a plus sign means that you'll get something, no specifics listed...or if it's an X you'll get more of something you already have?"

Michael snorted. "Let's hope I get more money, then."

"Alright, what have you got then?" Gabriel turned the tables on Michael and looked over at nir expectantly.

"Er...you've got something that looks like a hawk, based on the picture they've got here...that's 'unexpected occurrence'...and this bit I think is another sort of bird, but I can't tell specifically which one."

"So I'm going to be surprised at some point?"

"Don't act like yours was any better, I think you need Inner Eye testing."

"My eyes are fine."

"Not-"

Trelawney came swooping by their table. "Is something the matter, dears?"

"No," Gabriel and Michael said at the exact same time, glancing at each other in surprise.

"Let me see that, my dear," Trelawney said, taking Gabriel's cup. She stared into it, turning it anticlockwise. "The falcon...my dear, you have an enemy."

"I thought that was a hawk," Michael muttered.

"Everyone knows that," Hermione said, nearly interrupting Michael, but Trelawney didn't seem to notice and kept looking into the cup.

"The skull...danger in your path. Dear, dear, this is not a happy cup..."

Gabriel, personally, was wondering about the authenticity of this method.

"The flag...a secret revealed..." There was no way this actually worked.

Trelawney turned the cup one final time and stared into it. She didn't say anything.

"Professor?" Michael spoke up when the silence began to stretch on. People were now peering over to their table, wondering what was going on.

"I have never seen a symbol like this before." That was enough to draw several people out of their seats to come over and look. Michael looked in as well.

"I thought it was some sort of bird," ne said.

"This is no bird that I can recognize," said Trelawney. "See here...the lines around the center, extending out...this figure has six wings." Gabriel looked up sharply at that. Six wings?

"What's got six wings?" One of the Gryffindors asked, and as if in response Gabriel's six still not flightworthy wings rustled ever so slightly. Trelawney glanced around, as if she'd noticed the nearly-silent noise.

"I do not know," Trelawney answered. "Perhaps...yes, let us end the class here...this omen may be ominous, a warning..."

In a strange mood, the class packed up their things. People were giving Gabriel strange looks the entire time and he quickly descended the ladder, tired of being the center of attention.

As early as they had left Divination, it took ages for Gabriel and Michael to get to their next class, Herbology. Sprout set them all immediately to pruning some shrubs that had gotten wild over the summer. Everyone got so tired and sweaty that by the time they left the greenhouses Divination had been all but forgotten.

After lunch was Ancient Runes, which turned out to be much better than Divination had been. Vector was an older woman who seemed very enthusiastic about the subject, and very knowledgeable about runes. She passed out a syllabus at the beginning of class and went on to talk about all the different runes they'd be learning about that year, and their various applications in magic. She drew several on the chalkboard in the front of the classroom and gave points to anyone who could name the language they were from.

Gabriel knew them all of course, but what was the point of showing off when he was here to 'learn' about them?

Hermione was in that class as well. She paid rapt attention to the board and flipped rapidly through her course book when she didn't recognize whatever was on the board, which was often. The first time everyone [well, almost everyone] in the class was stumped was when Vector wrote Norse on the board.

"I didn't expect you to know this one," she said cheerfully while Gabriel was wondering why she'd written 'dragon'. "It's Ancient Norse, not been spoken for ages, ever since the late 14th century when they developed into the more common Germanic languages." She erased the rune. "It was spoken primarily by the Scandanavian peoples, or more commonly known as the Vikings, and of course the language spread to all the areas they conquered. Yes, Miss Granger?"

"But what about the British?"

"Ah! Well, that's an interesting tale! We'll get more into that later. For now, I think your period is almost up!"

Leaving the classroom, something made Gabriel look around. It wasn't a noise, or even seeing something out of place, but a trail of a feeling of something being a little bit...off. It dissipated before Gabriel could properly figure out where it was coming from, and it was with this particular mystery in his mind that Gabriel left for his next class.

The rain from yesterday had let up, but Gabriel had no intention of going out onto the grounds like he might have after classes, due to the dementors. Instead, he went towards Muriel's room - maybe there was something about dementors in there and how to get rid of them. As he passed through a relatively empty hallway, someone caught his arm.

"Do you have a moment?" It was Lupin.

"Yeah? Why?" Gabriel hadn't even had a class with the man yet, he doubted that he was already in trouble.

"It's nothing," said Lupin. "Just - the class I had planned for tomorrow - I was going to have a practical, and I thought I might ask you to sit it out."

"Sit it out?" Gabriel stared at the man. "What for?"

"Well-" Lupin seemed unwilling to give Gabriel a heads-up on what they would be facing. "The creature we'll be facing is a very certain kind, and if you were to face it I believe that the rest of the class might be a bit-"

"I'm sure it'll be fine," said Gabriel. "What sort of creature is it?"

"A Boggart," Lupin admitted. "It's supposed to take the shape of a fear you might have."

Oh. "And...you're worried mine might turn into something freaky?"

Lupin looked at him, surprised. "I thought it might turn into Voldemort."

He was the first person Gabriel had met who actually called Voldemort by his name. "I can think of a lot of things more frightening than someone I barely remember," said Gabriel, remembering that he was only supposed to have faced Voldemort when he was 'one'.

"If you're sure-"

"I think I'll be fine against this creature as long as you teach us how to defend ourselves." Gabriel continued along the hallway, waving behind himself. Lupin didn't follow him as Gabriel turned a corner, his easy demeanor slipping away.

_Another _worst-fear creature?

How many of them even existed? And the previous question notwithstanding, why was Gabriel being confronted with so many of them?

Muriel's room offered no answers as to Boggarts [Gabriel thought he might have mispronounced it] but it did have one book on dementors, which was very old based on the spelling [or 'spellinge'].

It didn't list any spells to use against them, but then again the book did call dementors 'demons from the fiery pit of Helle' so even if there had been any their accuracy probably would have been debatable. Besides, demons were much nastier. And dementors were not even close to the things that came from the Pit.

* * *

Dementors, creatures, and nonexistent spells aside, the Boggart lesson turned out to be very interesting.

They had all sat down in the Defense classroom and gotten out their things when Lupin showed up. "You can put all that away," he said. "Wands out, please. We'll be having a practical lesson. Bring your things with you, I don't have what I need in this room."

Muttering, the class got up with their wands out and books back in their bags. Lupin led them out of the classroom and through several halls to a door where Peeves was stuffing gum in the keyhole.

"Peeves, clear off," said Lupin. The poltergeist stuck out his tongue at the professor.

"Watch closely," Lupin whispered to the class, drawing his wand. He flicked it at the keyhole. "_Waddiwasi!_"

The gum flew out of the keyhole and stuffed itself up Peeves' nose. Cursing, the poltergeist fled, zooming off down the hallway as Lupin opened the door.

"That was awesome," said someone at the back of the crowd.

"Thank you," said Lupin, ushering in the class. It was the staff room, and there was already someone in it.

As Lupin made to close the door, Snape turned around. "Leave it open, Lupin. I'd rather not stay for this disaster." He strode out, robes billowing, and not for the first time Gabriel wondered whether he used a charm to get them to do that. The door slammed, as though Snape had given up on any sort of subtlety in conveying his dislike for Lupin.

The wardrobe at the other end of the room rattled, causing several people to jump.

"No need to worry," Lupin said reassuringly. "That's just a Boggart in there."

Many people seemed to think that this was a reason to worry, and considering the brief explanation Gabriel had gotten yesterday he didn't blame them. Most of the class were now eyeing the wardrobe warily, and seemed disinclined to go any farther towards it.

"Boggarts like dark, enclosed spaces," said Lupin. "Wardrobes, under beds, the space under the sink - I found one once that had lodged itself in a grandfather clock. This particular one moved in yesterday, and I asked Dumbledore to hold off on getting rid of it so I could borrow it for today's lesson. The first question we must ask is, what is a Boggart?"

Someone raised their hand. "Yes, Miss Fawcett?"

"It's a shape-shifter," the girl said. "It takes the shape of whatever will scare us the most."

"Excellent. So," Lupin said, striding in front of the class, "The Boggart in this wardrobe does not yet have a form. He does not know yet what will frighten the person who opens the wardrobe. Nobody knows what one looks like when they're alone, but the minute I let the Boggart out he will choose one fitting whoever is in front of him. This means," he said, ignoring the shifting of the class as they all tried not to be the one in front of the wardrobe, "That we have a large advantage. Has anyone spotted it yet? Harry?"

Gabriel glanced at the class. "There are too many people," he answered, "So it might get confused."

"Couldn't have said it better," Lupin said. "It's always best to have company when facing a Boggart, since then it will get confused between the two of you. Should it become a flesh-eating slug, or a headless corpse? I once saw a Boggart make that exact mistake and become half a slug. Not remotely terrifying."

There was a small titter of laughter. The wardrobe shook again, a little harder.

"Now, the charm that repels them is simple," Lupin said raising his own wand. "It only requires a bit of force. You see, what really finishes a Boggart is _laughter._ You must force it to assume a form that you find funny. We'll practice without wands first. After me, please...Riddikulus!"

"Riddikulus!" The class repeated, slightly discordant.

"Good, very good. But that was the easy part, I'm afraid." Lupin smiled reassuringly. "The word is not enough alone. You must get a good picture of what you want it to turn into, something that will take away the terror and make you laugh. Now, I want you all to take a moment and try and think of something the Boggart might turn into, and how you might make that funny."

Gabriel pondered the idea. What might his Boggart turn into? The thought of dementors entered his mind, but he shook it away - he wasn't scared of them, he just hated them. So what else was he _afraid _of?

"Everyone ready?" Lupin called. "Now, Anthony-" the boy jerked - Gabriel recognized him as one of his roommates. "-How about you go first?"

The rest of the class pulled away to line the walls, leaving Anthony facing the wardrobe on his own. He fidgeted nervously, looking anywhere but at the wardrobe.

"Ready?" Lupin asked him. Anthony took a deep breath and nodded. Lupin aimed his wand at the wardrobe and, in a shower of sparks, the wardrobe burst open.

Something came lurching out that was wrapped in bandages. It was a mummy, and it was a bit spooky, but Anthony hollered "Riddikulus!" and it tripped over its own feet, turning into nothing but bandages as it fell with a noise like a whip crack.

"Excellent!" Lupin said as there was a smattering of laughter. "Padma, you next!"

Padma stepped up and the bandages reformed into a large snake, at least ten feet long and writhing. Padma stepped back at first, but then steeled herself and shouted "Riddikulus!"

_Crack! _The snake was now a rubber toy.

"Good, Michael!" Michael darted in front of Padma, who was returning to the side. _Crack! _The Boggart was now a troll, lumbering forwards and swinging its club off its shoulder.

"Riddikulus!" _Crack!_ The troll missed and hit itself with the club, which was dropped. It rolled towards Gabriel, who leaped forward.

_Crack! _Several people screamed. Gabriel didn't blame them. The man the Boggart had turned into would have scared anyone, as he looked to be terminally ill, skin peeling away at his temples and revealing large red sores, but Gabriel knew better.

Maybe that was why he froze at first.

It smirked, the face twisting into a grin, and Not-Lucifer let a silver blade fall into his hand as he rushed towards Gabriel. The spell was on Gabriel's lips but it didn't seem to want to come out, and he dodged out of reflex as the Boggart swung at him.

Gabriel whirled around with his wand raised and already saying the spell but Lupin was darting in front of the Boggart already.

_Crack! _A silver orb was hanging in the air in front of Lupin. "Riddikulus!" he said, almost lazily, and the orb was punctured and went whizzing around the room before a great shout of laughter at the squeaking sound it made caused the Boggart to explode into silver wisps.

"Very good!" Lupin shouted, but he was looking at Gabriel. "Five points to Ravenclaw for everyone who faced the Boggart, and ten to Miss Fawcett and Mister Potter, for answering my questions correctly at the beginning of class!"

Talking excitedly, the class left the room. They seemed to have forgotten about Gabriel's Boggart, and several of them were saying that they hoped Lupin would last through the next year.

Seeing Michael open nir mouth, Gabriel held up a hand. "Don't you dare ask me if I'm alright."

* * *

**This chapter is over 4,000 words so I'm going to leave the other stuff for other chapters.**

**Read and review as always!**


	23. Halloween Mayhem

**Thank you to those who reviewed! I'm glad you liked the last chapter, and so I'll try to get this one up as quickly as the others!  
**

**To the _other _not-so-nice reviewer, Lovegood: ? There isn't any copy-and-pasting here. I admit I'm trying to not be so dependent on the books, but the only copy and pasting is when I'm moving one bit of the story somewhere else to make it fit better.**

**ATTENTION! PLEASE READ THIS IT'S ABOUT THE STORY: ****I know earlier in an author's note I said that his second year took place in 2013, but because of reasons I've needed to change that [also I'm too lazy to go back and edit the author's note]. Anyway, since obviously there was a bit of a time mix-up during Gabriel's interplanetary journey before he was stuck in Harry [Balthazar is still alive, therefore it hasn't been 12+ years on Earth 1 since Gabriel 'died'] and so the events below take place in 2011, since season five ends approx. May 2010. There's a whole mess dealing with the year in between those two seasons that we don't see but I'm not going into that. To recap, third year takes place in 2011, not 1993. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter**

* * *

Defense Against the Dark Arts had quickly become everyone's favorite class, Lupin becoming one of the most popular teachers they'd ever had. Only some of the Slytherins disliked him, and as the majority of those were the rich pureblood type, they seemed to dislike him purely on principle. The rest of his classes had gone as well as the Ravenclaw's, and soon a story swept the school about how one of the Gryffindor's Boggarts had been Snape, and the boy had forced it into his grandmother's clothes.

With the Boggart incident behind them, Gabriel was looking forward to the upcoming Halloween feast, remembering the treats from last year. As an extra treat, before that was the first Hogsmeade visit of the year. Michael in particular was looking forward to it, practically vibrating with excitement the night before Halloween.

"Settle down you idiot or you're going to sleep in tomorrow." Michael was not intimidated in the least by Gabriel, mainly because Gabriel wasn't actively trying to be.

When October thirty-first finally did arrive, Michael was already awake and dressed when Gabriel came downstairs. He practically pulled Gabriel out the door and they met Hermione in the line to leave for the village, the people around them talking excitedly about all the places they were going to see.

Unfortunately, things did not go their way.

"Mr. Potter!" Flitwick was striding towards them. "May I speak to you for a moment?"

Bewildered, Gabriel followed the man out of the line. He hadn't spoken to his head of House much, besides that one time in first year, and he wondered what Flitwick wanted.

"Mr. Potter." Flitwick had led him to the side, in an adjacent hallway. "I have a bit of a question about your Hogsmeade permission slip."

"What about it?"

"The man who signed it..." Flitwick brought out a piece of parchment and regarded it. Gabriel recognized Balthazar's sprawling signature. "Who is he?"

"He's my guardian."

"Yes, about that...I was under the impression you lived with your mother's sister? Petunia Dursley?"

"They signed over custody." Gabriel wondered where this was supposed to be going. "All legal, if that's what you're getting at."

"And what about the magical side of things?"

"The what?" Gabriel stared at him. "You're telling me the Dursleys were my magical guardians as well?"

"No, of course not. But there are several things that needed to be done that were not, and so.." Flitwick looked rather apologetic. "Dumbledore, honestly, is trying to make sure that your guardian is suitable."

It took Gabriel several moments to process this.

"Why's it his business?" He asked, getting rather irritated.

"The headmaster is in charge of the wellbeing of all the students in Hogwarts-"

"If Balthazar was an unsuitable guardian then the Dursleys wouldn't have signed over custody." Well, they might have. "And he's related to my mum too, if that's the problem! He was her cousin."

Flitwick seemed surprised by the news, but he stood his ground. "I'm sorry, but until we can be assured that your new guardian is suitable, I'm afraid this signature doesn't count."

_That _was what this was all about? They didn't want him going to the village? Gabriel glowered at the man.

"None of that," Flitwick said severely. "We're just trying to keep everyone safe." For what it was worth, he did look slightly regretful, but Gabriel just stormed off.

He could just go down to the village anyway, but then he'd have to be under the cloak [which the dementors could see through] and he'd still have no way of actually getting out of the castle.

Fuming, Gabriel walked for several minutes before realizing that he hadn't told Hermione and Michael about being forbidden to go. They were probably wondering where he'd gotten to, unless Flitwick had explained things to them.

"They don't care about my guardian," Gabriel muttered, kicking the wall lightly. "They're just worried about Sirius Black. The dementors are more of a problem than he is, and they're stationed all 'round the school but no, we've got to watch out for a man who probably killed himself escaping the place from how little's been seen of him-"

"Harry? What are you doing here?"

Gabriel swung around. It was Lupin, who was staring at him oddly and had probably overheard him.

"I've been forbidden from going to Hogsmeade." Gabriel told him.

"Ah." Lupin seemed to understand. "Would you like to come up to my office?" He offered. "I've just gotten a Grindylow delivered for the next class."

"A what?" There were all sorts of strange magical creatures, Gabriel mused as he followed Lupin. They had learned about a lot of them in his classes, but they weren't nearly as deadly as most of the ones Gabriel already knew of. And they were mostly animalistic. The grindylow, for example, was a weird octopus-like creature with long legs and a mouth full of sharp teeth.

"A type of water demon," Lupin explained as Gabriel tapped on the glass of the tank. The grindylow snarled at him. "The trick is to break its hold on you...their legs are very strong, but very brittle as well."

"Hm." Now that he mentioned it, Gabriel thought he could see what the teacher was talking about.

"Harry." Lupin sounded unusually serious. Gabriel turned around to see the man leaning on his desk. "I actually had a few questions for you, about the Boggart."

"Oh." Of course he'd had an ulterior motive.

"Well, I think you can understand that it was a bit alarming-" Lupin shifted so that he was standing up. "But I thought it was a bit more alarming that the Boggart was very concrete - it was a person. And well, I looked the man up and didn't find anything on him, so I know he's not some famous serial killer you might have heard of and developed a fear of, so-"

"You think I met him," Gabriel finished. Well, at least Lupin wasn't an idiot.

"Yes," Lupin agreed. "And based on not only his appearance but the fact that he tried to attack you with what looked like a sword, I feel like I have to ask-"

"Why do you care?"

Lupin looked at him in shock. "Well generally, when I think someone's been in a life-threatening situation-"

"No, no, you'd report it to Dumbledore if that was the case." Gabriel said confidently. "Not bring me into your office for a chat."

Lupin looked nonplussed. "Harry, why would I have a higher motive for trying to make sure you're alright?"

"I'm fine," Gabriel said, repressing the urge to roll his eyes. "Really, I am. I haven't been traumatized or anything by the Boggart."

Lupin tried changing tactics. "How about we each answer a question?" he asked. "You ask me one and I'll answer, but then you have to answer one of mine - honestly."

Gabriel considered it. "Fine," he said shortly, taking the seat in front of the desk. Lupin took the one behind it.

"Me first." said Gabriel before Lupin could begin. "Do you have another reason for caring?"

Lupin smiled slightly. "I knew your father while we were at school," he admitted. "We were in the same house - Gryffindor. We were quite good friends." He leaned closer slightly. "My turn. Is the Boggart a real person?"

Gabriel considered the question, trying to figure out how to phrase it so as not to send Lupin into a panic. "Yes," he said slowly.

"Have you-"

"I get to ask a question next," Gabriel interrupted. He tried to think of something to ask, but nothing came to mind immediately except-

"Why is Sirius Black after me?"

That made Lupin sputter a bit. "How did you find that out?"

"You don't get a question yet, but if you'd like me to answer that-"

"No," Lupin hurried to say. "It's fine. It's just-" He took a deep breath. "I didn't expect you to ask _that."_

"Do you know the answer?"

"...Yes."

"You promised to answer honestly."

Sigh. "I did. I know. But it's a very long story." Lupin ran a hand over his face, and Gabriel got the sense that the question had been more personal than he'd expected. "I suppose I should start at the beginning...

"I said your father and I were friends, but there were four of us in total; Me, James, Peter...and Sirius." Gabriel didn't react, letting Lupin go on. "We all knew each other very well, and when we graduated we all kept in touch.

"I'm not quite sure where it began to go wrong. The war was getting worse - you of course have heard of the things Voledmort did, but it was very different living through it. And at one point, Lily and James were convinced to go into hiding, just after you were born. They used something called the Fidelius - very tricky ward - basically, it makes everyone except those who are in on the 'secret' forget about whatever is behind the wards.

"The problem with the Fidelius is, you need someone to keep the secret of the location. Lily cast the ward, I believe, and they used Sirius as the secret keeper." Lupin sighed heavily, and Gabriel held up a hand.

"I think I understand - he gave them away, didn't he."

"Yes." Lupin looked more worn than usual. "They were dark times, but I don't think any of us expected Sirius to betray your parents." Lupin suddenly seized one of Gabriel's hands. "Harry - I probably shouldn't have told you that story at all, but promise me - you can't go looking for Black."

"I'm not going to go looking for him!" Gabriel had better things to do with his time.

"Harry, I know you might say that, but if you get any sort of ideas about revenge-"

"I'm not about to go looking for a serial killer, I think you can trust me to be that smart." Lupin finally let go, but he didn't look wholly convinced. "Are you going to ask your question?"

That seemed to remind him of what they were doing. "Oh, yes. Er-"

Someone knocked on the door.

"Come in," Lupin called as Gabriel twisted around in his seat.

It was Snape who walked in, carrying a steaming goblet. He paused when he saw Gabriel, eyes narrowing.

"Hello, Severus," Lupin said politely. Snape didn't reply, but just set the goblet down. "Thanks."

"I made an entire cauldronful, in case you needed any more," Snape said in his usual dark tone as Gabriel tried to lean away from the steam leaking off of whatever potion was in the cup.

"I should probably take some tomorrow as well. Thank you again, Severus."

Snape said nothing and simply left, shutting the door behind him.

Gabriel was still watching the potion. He wasn't entirely sure what it was, but only a few potions smoked when they were done and having read his entire potions book once when he was really, really bored...

Lupin took a sip and grimaced. "I've been feeling a bit off-color," he said by way of explanation, obviously having noticed Gabriel staring. "I've never been much of a potioneer, and Severus is kind enough to make this for me...pity sugar makes it useless, though," he added, taking another swallow with a disgusted expression. His words only cemented the idea for Gabriel.

He'd thought something was a bit off about Lupin. It was nothing in his demeanor, but archangel, anyone? Gabriel had a bit of a talent at seeing more than just the exterior.

Lupin cleared his throat as he set the now-empty goblet back on the table. "In any case. My next question...where did you meet the man your Boggart took the shape of?"

Well, that wasn't too loaded a question. "A place called the Elysian hotel," Gabriel answered. "It was out in pretty much the middle of nowhere."

"I see."

"You know, I think I've got another question."

"Oh?"

"When were you bitten?"

If Gabriel thought Lupin had reacted badly to the Sirius question, it was nothing to his now.

He sat there, openmouthed, and Gabriel felt like he should explain. "There are only so many potions that smoke like that," he said, nodding towards the goblet. "Coupled with the fact that you just mentioned being ill..."

Lupin seemed to have recovered slightly, but he still didn't say anything.

"I'm not going to say anything, you know." Gabriel told him. "It's October. School started a month ago, which means this has already happened once before, and since no one's been horribly murdered I'm going to assume that you've got ahold of yourself. Plus I know what wolfsbane is for, and if you didn't care about other people's safety you wouldn't be taking it."

"Yes, well-" Lupin glanced down at the goblet which had given it away. "I suppose I'll have to be more careful who I drink this around, if they are half as knowledgeable as you. I was actually-"

"I don't actually want to know, I was just making sure." Gabriel cut him off. "Go ahead and ask another, I suppose."

Lupin was looking at him in mingled surprise and thoughtfulness. He cleared his throat again. "The man...did you get into a fight with him?"

That would be trickier to answer. Gabriel considered it carefully trying to figure out how to answer without lying. "Yeeees?" Technically they had stood around while Gabriel talked and then been stabbed, but it did count as a fight.

He did not seem to be reassuring Lupin at all. "And where is this man now?"

"That's two questions in a row, but I suppose I can answer. I'm pretty sure he's locked up." Gabriel had left the Winchesters a hint after all. Hopefully they had managed to throw Lucifer back in the cage and not botched the job.

"Well." Lupin was still looking at him awkwardly. He seemed unsure how to carry on the conversation.

Gabriel scooted his chair back and stood up. "Nice talking to you, professor. I'll see you in class." Lupin didn't stop him as he left the room.

* * *

Halloween was as good as it ever was. This year, amid the usual decorations of huge carved pumpkins and live bats, there were thick orange streamers which snaked around the ceiling and gave off the impression of being on fire. Michael and Hermione had returned from Hogsmeade with armfuls of sweets each for him, but that didn't stop Gabriel from eating half the tin of lollipops.

When they finished up it was to entertainment from the Hogwarts ghosts. Nick had performed a reenactment of his own bungled beheading, which was well appreciated, and they did a bit of formation gliding, silvery and nearly invisible in the bright candlelight.

It all seemed to be going well, and Gabriel was beginning to wonder where the usual Halloween bad luck had gone. First year there had been the troll, and then last year the Chamber had been opened and Mrs. Norris petrified and found on their way back to the Tower, but even as they entered the dormitory afterwards there seemed to be nothing wrong, and Gabriel allowed himself to think that maybe nothing would happen.

He was wrong, of course.

They were all woken an hour or so later [Gabriel had taken to actually sleeping at night, to see if that would have any affect on his Grace, which so far it hadn't] by some sort of commotion in the common room. Gabriel pulled on a shirt and went down with the rest of them to see what was the matter, and the entire House was sent back down to the great hall.

"What's going on?" Michael had squeezed through the crowd to get to Gabriel, coming up behind him.

"No idea, they just said we all had to go back downstairs. It's ten PM!"

"Something must have happened."

"Something always does, Michael, it's Halloween."

The Gryffindors were already there, and the other two Houses arriving to the Great Hall. Everyone but the Gryffindors were in their pajamas or some sort of casual clothes. Michael started looking around for Hermione, and someone else came up behind Gabriel. It was Draco.

"What in Merlin's name happened?" he demanded.

"I'd like to know just as much as you would."

"There she is!" Michael made a beeline for Hermione, who was near the other end of the hall. She looked up as she saw them approaching, Ron sitting next to her.

"What happened?" Gabriel asked once they got close enough. "The teachers just told us all to come down here and left us at the door."

Hermione looked rather pale. "It's the Fat Lady," she said.

"The what?" Draco asked with one eyebrow raised.

"The portrait guardian for our common room," Hermione explained. "We got up there after the feast and the painting was all slashed up, and she was gone. Peeves said...Peeves told Dumbledore that Sirius Black did it."

"Black?" Michael exclaimed. Ne looked horrified. "But how'd he get in the castle?"

Dumbledore spoke up at that exact moment. "Students!" He called. "For tonight you are all to stay in the great hall. Prefects, make sure to keep a watch over things and make sure that no one leaves!" He paused. "Oh, you'll be needing..."

A wave of his wand and the House tables vanished, causing some people to drop to the floor abruptly. Gabriel caught Hermione by the arm before she fell. One more wave of Dumbledore's wand, and hundreds of squashy purple sleeping bags covered the floor.

Dumbledore left with the other teachers. Most people immediately found a sleeping bag, and Gabriel grabbed several and dragged them into a circle.

"Thanks," Michael muttered, slipping inside one, still in his shirt and sweater. He was the only one besides Hermione and Ron [who had dragged his bag up] still in his uniform - even Draco was wearing a set of green pajamas.

"By the way," Draco was the one who spoke up. "What are you wearing?" He was looking at Gabriel.

Gabriel glanced down at himself. He was wearing a shirt Balthazar had snapped up for him as a joke at one point in the summer which featured a bad, stick figure version of a wizard. "What's wrong with it?"

"What's wrong-"

"Just because it's not fancy like your pajamas," Gabriel huffed in fake irritation. "Hermione's still in her robes and you haven't said anything."

"No more talking!" said a nearby prefect sharply. He was that one Weasley whose name Gabriel could never remember. "It'll be lights-out soon."

As he spoke, the candles abruptly flickered and went out, casting darkness over the hall. With the ceiling overhead lit by starlight, it was almost like being outside.

Gabriel lay awake, pretending to sleep in hopes of catching part of a conversation if one of the teachers happened to come by. As luck would have it, someone did, at around three AM.

Dumbledore swept by, walking towards the Gryffindor prefect. "How have things gone here?"

"All well, sir. Nothing out of place. Any sign of him, sir?"

"No, unfortunately. But it's good that all is well here. There's no point in getting them all back to their dorms now. I've found a temporary guardian for the Gryffindor portrait hole - you cane move back in tomorrow."

"And what about the Fat Lady, sir?"

"Hiding in a map of Argyllshire on the third floor. She's understandably scared - I'll have Filch restore her once she's calmed down."

Another set of footsteps came up. "Severus. Have you located Black?"

"No, headmaster. He's not in the dungeons, nor the third floor."

"And what of the Astronomy Tower? Professor Trelawney's room? The owlrey?"

"Not there either. Headmaster, if I may be so bold - you remember what I spoke of at the beginning of term-"

"I do, Severus."

There was a beat of silence.

"Then you do remember what I said - when you appointed-"

"Severus," there was a warning note in Dumbledore's voice. "I do not believe that anyone in this castle helped Black to enter." He said it in such a way that even Snape could tell that the conversation was over.

There was another moment of silence.

"I must inform the dementors," Dumbledore said. "They asked to be told if we had found Black."

"Didn't they want to help, sir?" the prefect spoke again.

"Oh, yes," Dumbledore said coldly. "But no dementor will cross the threshold while I am headmaster."

After that, there was only the sound of footsteps fading away. Gabriel opened his eyes slightly and saw Snape, a figure only slightly blacker than his surroundings. He stood for several moments before turning and walking away as well.

_What was that about?_


	24. The Marauder's Map

**Yaaaay so many reviews on the last chapter! I'm glad you all liked it. But come on. I need one more person. One more review to 200. I know you guys can do it.  
**

**I know I skipped through some stuff pretty quickly in the chapter, but I didn't want to bog you guys down with stuff from the books that you've already read.**

**PS: Thank you guys for pointing out the small error I made when making Balthazar 2. Fixed it.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter**

* * *

Sirius Black's breaking in to Hogwarts was the subject of pretty much every discussion outside the classroom after that night. There was all sorts of speculation as to how he got in, which grew more and more ridiculous as time wore on. One of the Hufflepuffs told anyone who stopped to listen that Black could turn into a flowering shrub.

While the others weren't quite as far-fetched, they weren't much better. Some said he'd teleported himself in [except the wizards called it Apparating]. Some said he'd flown in. Others said he'd disguised himself.

The other problem with the break-in was that Gabriel was now being watched closely, as everyone was convinced that he needed protecting. Teachers found excuses to walk along corridors with him. There was always _someone _at the other end of the hallway. And the Ravenclaw prefects were now [rather obviously] tailing him.

He never brought it up, of course, but Gabriel took every chance he could to dodge his watchers, even if it did take a little Grace.

Hermione was only frustrated by the rumors which were going around, as Gabriel hadn't mentioned the watchers to her or Michael. "Honestly," she said in a huff one night. "Am I the only one who's read Hogwarts, A History?"

"Probably," Michael said as ne frowned at nir essay. "Do moonstones help dream potions?"

"No, they're never used as ingredients."

"Thanks."

"Speaking of homework-" Gabriel glanced over at Hermione, who was surrounded by tall stacks of books and parchment everywhere. "How are you doing all of that?"

"I manage," said Hermione distractedly. "Harry, aren't you suppose to be working on our Ancient Runes homework?"

"Our what? Oh, I already finished that."

"You what?"

* * *

Sirius Black wasn't the only bit of news causing tension. There was an upcoming Quidditch match which everyone was looking forward to, and though Ravenclaw wasn't playing they seemed just as excited.

It was the day before the match and Gabriel was arguing with Michael as they walked to Defense. They were already late, slowed down by the crowds and the fact that they'd only been on their way once Michael had gone back and gotten his book.

"I'm not going."

"Harry, you've refused to attend a single match! Please?"

"Michael, have you _looked _outside recently?" Rain was pelting down on the school and the winds made the windows rattle. "I'm surprised they haven't cancelled it, with this weather!"

_"_Come on, Harry, it's just a game."

"I'm not getting soaked for your favorite game, Michael." Gabriel yanked open the door to the Defense class a bit harder than he should have, and everyone already inside looked up.

Snape was sitting behind Lupin's desk.

"You're late, Potter, Corner," he said coldly. "Ten points from Ravenclaw. Sit down."

"Where's Professor Lupin?" Michael asked.

"Professor Lupin is ill and asked me to take over his classes while he is unable to teach. Sit down, or it will be another ten points."

Slowly, Michael sank into the nearest seat. Gabriel took the one on the other side and wondered why Lupin had asked Snape of all people to substitute when they obviously disliked each other.

"Professor Lupin has not left any directions on where you left off," Snape continued, sneering. "As it is, I shall-"

"Please, sir, we've just started red caps-"

"Sit down, Miss Fawcett. I was not asking for an answer, I was merely remarking on his incompetency." Gabriel's eyebrows raised higher at that. He'd expected Snape to at least be subtle about how much he hated Lupin.

The rest of the lesson did not go any better. Snape sneered his way through orders to turn to page three hundred and nintey-four and learn about werewolves. _Very subtle._

At the end of the period he assigned two rolls on the proper ways to identify and kill werewolves, which had everyone complaining, and Gabriel thought it was a bit odd how no one commented on being forced to learn how to kill werewolves.

Was the magical world really like that of the Hunters? Did they hunt down magical creatures to the point where how to kill them became common knowledge? If so, the presence of ghosts in the castle became even odder.

Of course, Gabriel had no time to think over this.

* * *

The signal from Balthazar had been strong, but subtle. As soon as the match started he'd slipped off to answer it.

_What do you want? _He asked irritably, sending the message over angel radio. No one would recognize it as being from him save Balthazar, due to his reduced Grace.

**_I've gotten into a bit of a jam._**

_What have you done now.  
_

**_I may have teamed up with the Winchesters._**

_You what?!  
_

**_Don't be like that. Anyway, I know I explained the whole 'Castiel and Crowley' thing to you over the summer._**

_Yeah. I'm not getting involved.  
_

**_I'm not asking you to. I'm asking you to keep an eye on me since I'm not sure whether or not Castiel will actually kill me._**

_Castiel. Kill you.  
_

**_You're not here, Gabriel. Things have gone much farther south._**

_Show me.  
_

Balthazar did.

_Holy shit._

**_See what I'm worried about?_**

_You didn't say they were going after PURGATORY. Was that not important?  
_

**_Look, hear me out-_**

_I suppose I can snap up a double for you to send instead.  
_

**_What?_**

_Go back to the place in London, I'll send a fake-you instead. Where should he go?  
_

Balthazar gave him the impression of a location.

_Got it. Go one, get out of America for a while. This might be you faking your death._

**_Fine._**

_Also, before you go-  
_

**_What?_**

_Lend me some Grace.  
_

**_What?!_**

_You think it's going to be easy sending this thing between Earths? I don't have enough energy! _

**_So you want to borrow mine?_**

_You can just give me a boost. Come one, you can get that Grace back EASILY. Me? Not so much. _

He could feel the reluctance on Balthazar's end.

_Would you like to go talk to Castiel yourself?  
_

**_...No._**

_Work with me here, Balthazar.  
_

**_FINE._ **There was a surge of resentment, along with a swell of Grace. It was probably very little of Balthazar's power, but it would be enough.

_See you next summer._ Gabriel cut off the 'radio' connection before Balthazar could reply, frowning at nothing in the empty common room. Despite the weather, absolutely everyone was down in the stands.

_Ah, well. I suppose I can use this much Grace._

Drawing from the well of power inside him, and the slightly smaller one the Balthazar had given, Gabriel snapped his fingers.

Instantly a copy of Balthazar appeared in front of him. Balthazar 2 frowned as Gabriel winced and bent over slightly. Luckily, the conjuration hadn't taken quite as much out of him as he'd expected, but that didn't mean it hadn't taken a lot.

He told the fake Balthazar where to go and it popped off with the usual flutter of wings that might accompany real Balthazar's flight. Gabriel sat back and waited for everyone to return, prodding moodily at his Grace. It didn't seem like it was coming back anytime soon.

It turned out to be an especially good thing that he'd never gone to the match.

Dementors had, apparently, descended on the stands. The game had been hurriedly drawn to a close, and when Michael returned with everyone else it was with a pale face and slight shakiness.

"See, this is why I never go to matches." Gabriel snapped the book closed as Michael finished explaining what had happened. "Where would I be if you'd actually convinced me?"

Michael seemed only partially convinced. "You couldn't have known that was going to happen."

"No, but the thing is, I didn't go and avoided the dementors. If I had gone-"

"You're going to refuse to attend the matches because of the dementors?"

"Maybe."

"Harry..."

* * *

Gabriel contacted Balthazar that night.

**_What do you want?_**

_I wouldn't go back to that Earth anytime soon.  
_

**_Why?_**

_Your double's dead.  
_

**_Ah. So Castiel actually did it?_**

_Hell if I know. That took a lot out of me, you know. The only reason I know it's dead is because I suddenly got some of that mojo back.  
_

**_I would assume. _**It was quiet on Balthazar's end for a moment. **_Thank you, Gabriel._**

Was Balthazar actually being sincere? _...You're welcome, I guess._

* * *

A couple weeks before Christmas break was due to start, the bad weather abruptly ended. The sun could finally be seen and everything outside was covered in a layer of shining frost. Students were all happily discussing their plans for the holidays - except for Michael and Hermione.

Hermione insisted that she needed to use the library for an Arithmancy project, and Michael said that nir cousin was spending Christmas at nir parent's house and ne didn't want to spend two weeks around him, but it was blindingly obvious to Gabriel that they were staying to keep him company. Unlike last year, he didn't protest and simply pretended that he believed their excuses.

There was to be another Hogsmeade trip right before break began, to Gabriel's disappointment, as he had suddenly remembered that he couldn't go.

"Sorry," Michael said sympathetically. "I'll bring back a load of candy for you again, I forgot the Pepper Imps last time.."

But even the promise of candy couldn't substitute actually going to the village.

_I'm an archangel damnit, I shouldn't be limited by school rules!_

"Psst!"

Gabriel whipped around. There was no one behind him. The hallway was totally empty.

"Pssssssst!"

It was coming from a nearby classroom. As Gabriel walked closer, two pairs of hands reached out and dragged him inside.

"What the-"

One of the Weasley twins shut the door as the other stood in front of Gabriel, grinning.

"Harry," said the one by the door. Probably Fred. "How are you, this wonderful Christmas holiday eve?"

"Wondering why I've been dragged into an abandoned classroom."

"Ah," said George happily, "We thought we'd give you a bit of festive cheer!"

"Something to keep in the spirit of this giving season-"

"Not like we need it any more-"

"We know it by heart-"

"So we're giving it to you," Finished George, whipping a blank piece of parchment out of his robes.

Gabriel raised one eyebrow. "You're giving me a blank bit of paper?"

"A blank bit of paper?" Fred clutched his chest. "Blasphemy!"

"This parchment," said George, waving it in front of Gabriel's face, "Has taught us more about Hogwarts than any book ever did. When we were young and innocent-"

"I highly doubt you were ever innocent," said Gabriel, "And please, spare the discovery story. What's it do?"

The twins glanced at each other. "Alright," they said at the same time, looking back at Gabriel.

"Here you are."

"The workings of the paper."

"Just tap it with your wand and say-"

"_I solemnly swear I am up to no good." _Fred's wand was on the paper as he spoke. Ink started branching out from it, scarlet lines connecting and forming letters and a drawing of a castle that looked suspiciously like Hogwarts.

_Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs_

_are proud to present_

_THE MARAUDER'S MAP_

Gabriel unfolded the paper, which had suddenly grown several layers. It was indeed a map of Hogwarts, but that wasn't the only thing. Tiny, ink footsteps were making their way around the school. Gabriel watched incredulously as a pair labeled 'Albus Dumbledore' walked in circles in his office. An even tinier set of pawprints showed Mrs. Norris walking around on the fourth floor. Gabriel's eyes darted to where they stood now, and he hastily folded the map back up before either of the twins could look over his shoulder and see that he had no label.

There was something else he had seen. Just outside the room the three of them were in, there was a passage which led-

"All of them, straight to Hogsmeade," said Fred, satisfied. "This map's got every single passage in the school on it. Now, four of them we're sure Filch knows about, and there's one on the fifth floor that caved in ages ago. And no one uses the one on the grounds since it's right underneath the Whomping Willow, but this one-"

"Right outside this room," George took over. "Goes right into Honeydukes."

"What do you think about that, eh?"

Gabriel let a slow, broad grin spread over his face.

* * *

The tunnel was obviously meant for someone a bit bigger than Gabriel was at the moment, as it had enough room for him to stretch out both arms before they hit the wall. It was very smoothly carved - someone must have used magic to get it like this. It was also very dark, and Gabriel had to light his wand to see where he was going.

The twins had given him the map for good - they claimed they knew it by heart already and had no use for it. Luckily for Gabriel, who had finally been proved wrong after the past two years of lamenting the lack of a map of the huge castle.

The tunnel twisted around on itself, more like a rabbit warren than a proper tunnel, and it went on for ages. Eventually, the ground underneath his feet began to rise, and Gabriel sped up slightly.

He came to some worn stone steps, which rose out of sight. It took almost as long to climb the stairs as it had to get to them - and then Gabriel had to stop abruptly to stop himself hitting his head.

He was standing directly underneath some sort of trapdoor. Beyond it, he could hear distant chatter, and the faint ding of a bell. Testing it, the trapdoor rose easily, but Gabriel hurriedly closed it again as someone came down the stairs.

A woman's voice yelled down and heavy footsteps moved around for several minutes before retreating again. Raising the door a crack and peering out, Gabriel saw someone climb to the top of a set of stairs and disappear. Hoisting himself out, Gabriel discovered that he was in some sort of store room. He hurried over to the stairs and brought himself quickly to the top, ducking out of the way behind the counter in front of him until he got to the end.

Gabriel stood up straight.

The shop was swarming with Hogwarts students, and no one paid any attention to one more. Gabriel ducked away from the counter and found himself in between two humungous barrels of sweets - one was full of some sort of jawbreaker-like candy, and the other piled high with the familiar Chocolate Frog packages.

"This shop is amazing."

Another turn around provided a view of Michael and Hermione, standing underneath a display labeled 'Unusual Tastes'. There was a redhead standing next to them but Gabriel couldn't tell if the boy was just there or actually with them. He went closer, squeezing through the crowd until he was near enough to hear their conversation.

"Urgh, Michael, don't get him those, they're for vampires I expect."

"What about these?" Asked Ron, shoving a jar of some clumpy brown thing into view.

"Definitely not," said Gabriel.

Ron nearly dropped the jar as Hermione whirled around. Michael gaped at him. "Harry!" ne said. "What are you doing here?"

"Have you learned to Apparate?" Ron asked, looking impressed.

"No," Gabriel said, grinning at their incredulous expressions. "Just had a bit of help."

"A bit of help?" Hermione said. "Harry, what about Sirius Black?"

"I really doubt he's going to be in Hogsmeade in the middle of the day."

"Well-"

Michael butted in. "What about that sign on the door?" Ne asked Hermione. "The dementors are patrolling here all night, I don't think Black's going to be anywhere near Hogsmeade."

Hermione looked conflicted. "But what it-"

"Plus," Ron added, jumping on Gabriel's side, "Look at the weather!" Snow was swirling around, creating a thick white almost-blizzard to get through. "He's not gonna be out and about in this kind of snow."

"I suppose." Hermione still looked torn between telling him to go back to Hogwarts and letting Gabriel come. "But what sort of help did you have?"

"A map." Gabriel grinned as their expressions grew even more confused. "Apparently, there is one."

* * *

"How come Fred and George never told _me _about this? I'm their brother!"

* * *

The Three Broomsticks was much warmer after the bitter chill of the street, and the group pushed in gratefully. Ron volunteered to go get drinks as they all found a table, Gabriel scooting over to be closer to the window.

Hermione had to be convinced that the map wasn't some sort of evil device to lure Gabriel out of Hogwarts and into Sirius Black's hands, though Gabriel understood where she was coming from. She was worried. Of course, this was taking it a bit too far, as Hermione was usually more logical than this.

A tray full of butterbeers was plonked onto the table and Ron slid into the seat next to Michael. "Drink up, yeah?" He'd brought one for each of them, and Gabriel took a sip of one. It seemed nice, but he couldn't really taste it. It was certainly warm.

"Awesome," Michael said, grinning, before the bell over the door of the pub tinkled and Gabriel had only a glimpse of McGonagall and someone in an eye-wateringly green bowler hat before someone pushed him under the table. Gabriel steadied the drink in his hand to keep it from sloshing all over him as the Christmas tree next to their table slowly moved over so that no one might glance under and see him.

A pair of glittery heels tapped over to the table once all the teachers had sat down [Hagrid the groundskeeper must have been with them, no one else had feet that big] and began handing out drinks as she spoke.

"Thank you," said someone unfamiliar once she was done. "Fetch yourself one and sit down, why don't you, Rosmerta?"

"Well, thank you, Minister." _Minister? As in the same guy who thought dementors would be a good idea?_

The heels left and came back, disappearing behind the edge of the booth Gabriel was hiding under. 'Rosmerta' must have sat down.

"So what brings you this far north, Minister?"

"What else? Sirius Black, of course."

"Oh, yes, I heard about that."

"Did you tell the whole pub, Hagrid?" McGonagall said despairingly. There was a bit of shuffling around before Rosmerta spoke again.

"You don't think he's still up here, do you Minister?"

"I'm sure of it," said the Minister shortly.

"But wouldn't he have moved on?" An edge came into Rosmerta's voice. "You know dementors have searched my pub twice now. Scared away all the customers."

"Er, yes...a necessary precaution. They were in a fury, of course, that he escaped."

"Well, Black's quite dangerous, isn't he?"

"Oh yes, but the worst he did isn't quite as widely known."

"Worse than murdering a street full of Muggles?"

The Minister lowered his voice. "I'm afraid so."

Gabriel stayed under the table, listening intently as the Minister told the story. Lupin had already given him the bare basics, but the Minister's story held much more detail. For instance, Gabriel hadn't known that Sirius Black had been named Harry Potter's godfather. Or that there had been a suspicion of a spy for nearly a year before that Halloween.

Hagrid burst out emotionally as they were describing the scene of the destroyed house, which Gabriel actually remembered [so that was who that weird guy on the lawn had been] and had to be hurriedly shushed. Gabriel was sure that at least some people were looking over at them by now, and wondered why the teachers hadn't made more of an effort to be quiet.

Gabriel frowned at their description of how Pettigrew had been found. A heap of robes? If the spell had blown him to bits, then why were his robes intact? Magic was weird.

The people in the table left with a clatter and still as a group. Rosmerta's sparkly shoes went back towards the bar while everyone else went for the door, and Gabriel was left still under the table.

"Harry?"

Hermione, Michael, and Ron were all peering down at him, lost for words.

* * *

The trip back to the castle seemed to go much faster than the trip there. It was ridiculously easy to sneak back into the Honeydukes cellar and find the right tile, pry it up and get back into the tunnel. The statue of the humpbacked witch opened onto a deserted corridor when Gabriel got back into the school, and he hopped out easily.

His friends were probably expecting him to be emotionally traumatized by the story but really, it wasn't that bad. If he'd actually been Harry Potter he probably would have been quite upset.

As it was, however, it was like hearing a story about something bad that had happened to the neighbors which lived several blocks away from you. Maybe the story would make you a little sympathetic, you might send them a card, but it certainly wouldn't put you in the mood to go hunting down serial killers or whoever might have made them feel that way.

Even more simply put, Gabriel didn't care. The Potter's were his vessel's parents, not his.

Michael watched him warily through dinner, though he didn't say anything since they were surrounded by people. He didn't talk to Gabriel that night either, as Gabriel had gone to bed early to avoid just that.

When Gabriel woke up the next morning, he almost thought he had been dreaming.

Which was absurd, of course.

Angels didn't _dream._

But there was still the lingering feeling that he had forgotten something, a tint of strangeness lingering in the corners of his mind, which no matter how hard he tried Gabriel couldn't forget.

* * *

Michael was waiting for him when he came downstairs.

"Hey," Ne said, turning around towards the staircase. Ne had obviously been waiting.

"Morning." Gabriel flopped down on one of the sofas. "Where is everyone?"

"It's the first day of break," Michael reminded him.

"Right. You stayed this year."

Michael was silent for a moment. When Gabriel looked over at nir, ne took a deep breath and blurted out "Don'tgoafterSiriusBlack!"

"D'you mind repeating that a little slower than mach five?"

"Don't go after Sirius Black, I know you might be mad-"

"Michael-"

"And I talked with Hermione and Ron and they agree and it would be really dangerous-"

"Michael-"

"And you wouldn't do anything you'd probably just get really hurt and then Black would run away again-"

"Michael! I'm not planning to go after him!"

"What?" Michael finally stopped talking.

"I already knew. Lupin told me."

"He _what_?" Michael looked surprised. "Why would he do that?"

"I asked him."

"And he just told you?"

"Well, we were sort of trading off questions." Gabriel explained how Lupin had offered the game to find out more about his Boggart, which made Michael shift around as though he were itching to ask about it as well. Fortunately, though, he stayed silent.

"So...you're not mad?"

No. "I've worked through it. Lupin wouldn't let me leave until he was sure I wouldn't." Gabriel felt bad lying to Michael, but what was he supposed to say? I don't actually care because they're not my parents?

Michael looked slightly like ne thought Gabriel might be lying, but ne didn't call him out on it, for which Gabriel was thankful.

He'd have a hell of a time convincing Hermione, though.

* * *

Christmas day broke with Gabriel being shaken awake again. Michael pulled him down to the common room, where a small evergreen with a pile of presents underneath it and Hermione waited.

"They're all down here," Michael said excitedly. "Whoever brought them must have known we would all get together. Even _Hermione's _are here."

"Merry Christmas," Hermione greeted them when they got close enough. "Here, Harry, this one's yours."

"Thanks." It was a box of toothflossing stringmints and a pack of Pokemon cards. "Where's you get these?"

"My cousin had a bunch of old ones," Hermione explained. "They might be a little worn but she had a bunch of rare ones."

"Nice." Gabriel pointed at a package wrapped in bright silver paper. "That one looks like it has your name on it."

It seemed like no time at all before there was wrapping paper discarded everywhere and presents uncovered. Gabriel had been given a sweater and an assortment of food by Mrs. Weasley, who seemed determined to mother him. Michael had bought him a book on runes.

"For your class," he explained, and though he didn't really need the extra translation half of the book offered Gabriel kept it anyway. He'd also received a Quidditch poster from Ron [which he didn't keep; the thing was neon orange] and even another present from Draco, though this was just a note saying that he'd hold off on any bigotry [though not in quite as many words] this year. When Gabriel looked closer at the envelope, he found a fancy green quill inside as well.

"Awesome," said Michael, admiring the second Pokemon figurine Gabriel had given him. "What's this one called?"

"It's an Eevee."

"You're sure these aren't actual creatures?"

"Very sure."

* * *

Lunch was a bit of a subdued affair. Most people had gone home, and so the only students at the table were Gabriel, Hermione, Michael, a sullen-looking Slytherin girl, and two nervous first-years. The teachers were all there as well, the staff and three other students seated around a single long table. The four usual tables were missing.

"Welcome!" Dumbledore beamed. "Since there are so few of us this year I thought it would be better to forgo the House tables - please, sit down."

The three of them did, the Slytherin barely scooting over to make room.

"Crackers!" Dumbledore said enthusiastically, offering Snape a silver one. The Potions master pulled it with barely concealed distaste, and when it exploded it revealed a witch's hat topped with a stuffed vulture. Snape's lip curled and everyone at the table suddenly remembered the Boggart story, which had Gabriel barely restraining giggles. Snape pushed it towards Dumbledore, who swapped it with his own hat at once.

The doors creaked open and surprisingly enough, Trelawney entered. She was wearing a green dress which made her look a bit like a giant insect, and the glasses didn't help.

"Sybil," said McGonagall, slightly dryly. "What a surprise."

"I was gazing into my crystal ball," said Trelawney in her usual misty voice, "When I saw myself descending to join you all, and who am I to resist the callings of fate?"

"I see," said Dumbledore kindly, though the effect was somewhat ruined by the hat he was still wearing. "Well come and sit down then!"

Trelawney looked at the table and gave a kind of soft scream. "I dare not, Headmaster! If I join there will be thirteen, and when thirteen dine together the first to rise will be the first to die!"

"I think we'll be fine," said McGonagall.

Trelawney took a breath lowered herself into the seat with the air of someone waiting for an explosion. Nothing happened.

McGonagall offered her a tray. "Turkey, Sybil?"

Lunch proceeded without any sort of fanfare, Dumbledore's hat being really the only noteworthy bit. Really, it was kind of a dreadful hat, but the headmaster seemed to like it. Gabriel wondered if he wasn't a bit mad, and then wondered why he hadn't asked himself that before.

When the plates had been cleared away, Gabriel was first to stand. Trelawney gasped and looked at him, horrified.

"My dear! I had warned of the consequences - I fear that now you may not have long left!"

"Right." Out of everyone at the table, Gabriel was practically guaranteed to live the longest. He left the hall, not bothering with the Divination teacher. He'd long ago decided that there was no way she was actually psychic and had done the bare minimum for the class, hoping that if he failed out of it he could switch to a different one next year.

* * *

Lupin was in his office the next day when Gabriel checked.

"Oh - hello, Harry. Was there something you wanted?"

"Sort of." Something had occurred to Gabriel the other night. "You used a spell to ward off the dementor on the train, right?"

Lupin slowly put down his mug. "Yes, I did."

"What spell?"

"It's called the Patronus charm. It's very advanced, even adult wizards have a hard time doing it-"

"What's the incantation?"

Lupin pressed his lips together, as if thinking about what he was going to say. "Would you like me to teach you?"

Gabriel was startled by the offer, but he didn't let it show. "How?"

"Well, we couldn't get a real dementor, of course..." Lupin frowned. "I suppose you could just practice until you can do the spell, but then there's no guarantee that it will hold up in front of a real dementor..."

"That sounds fine. When?"

Lupin seemed surprised that he had agreed so easily. "Well - not now, but maybe...the first one could be sometime during break...perhaps next weekend?"

"Alright. Thanks."

"You're welcome."

* * *

**Yeah that ending's super awkward but I'm not making this any longer. Anywhoo. Took me some time to get started on this chapter, but here you go!**

**Read and review, as always. Come on. You can get me to that two hundred.**


	25. Quidditch and Trelawney's Prediction

**So this might take a little longer to get up, since I was going back through the old chapters I wrote and editing a bit. Mostly minor stuff, typos and the like. Don't worry, there haven't been any major changes!**

**Little bit of foreshadowing in this chapter! There's some stuff that won't come in until a lot later, but I put a tiny hint in the chapter, if you think you can find it.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter**

* * *

Patronus lessons were, as Lupin promised, before the end of break. Gabriel showed up at his office a couple days later after receiving a note saying to come over.

"Ah, Harry." Lupin was standing in center of the room. "Please, come in."

Gabriel did so, kicking the door closed behind him. "So we're just practicing the spell?"

"Exactly. I doubt you'd want to go outside and practice on a real dementor..." Lupin cleared his throat. "Anyway. This is very advanced magic, Harry, beyond a lot of adult wizards-"

"You mentioned that yesterday."

"Right. The Patronus Charm acts as a sort of shield between you and the dementors, protecting you from their influence." Gabriel felt a pang of disappointment that it wasn't an offensive spell. " It usually takes the shape of an animal."

"What kind of animal?"

"That depends on the caster. The Patronus is also similar to Riddikulus - it is based on positive emotions, which the dementor cannot feed upon. In this case, the caster focuses on a happy memory, which powers the spell."

"Ah." That might be a bit difficult.

Lupin didn't seem to notice. "The incantation is this - _expecto patronum. _Got that?"

"Yeah - expecto patronum."

"Try it. Find a happy memory, something that could power a Patronus, a really happy one." Tall order, considering Gabriel's past.

"Alright, give me a minute." Gabriel frowned, casting his mind back for anything that could power this spell. Something really happy.

The Norse Pantheon was immediately discarded, as even though there were some moments that might have worked they would immediately be overrun with sadder memories. There were some moments farther back, but they weren't enough to power a spell like this. Gabriel needed something big.

_Something _had to work.

"Okay," Gabriel said after several more moments. "I've got one."

"Good," said Lupin, who looked slightly relieved. Gabriel must have taken longer than he'd thought finding a good memory. "Now - keep that feeling very firmly in your mind, and cast the spell whenever you're ready."

Cementing the memory in his mind and batting away any other thoughts that tried to nose in, Gabriel pointed his wand forward. "Expecto patronum!"

Something vaguely silver shot out out of the end. It was a very small wisp. Gabriel frowned at it.

"It's not going to work if you're scowling like that," Lupin said gently. "Try again - maybe try a different memory? The one you're using might not be strong enough."

Not strong enough? Gabriel racked his mind for something else he might be able to use.

Maybe...going farther back would work.

Way back.

When there were four archangels, and not just three.

"Expecto patronum!"

The wisp was larger this time, but it still had no definite shape. It was a bright silver, gleaming in the dim room.

"Excellent!" said Lupin. He seemed surprised. "Well, I have to say, I didn't expect you to get it on the first try...this is certainly excellent progress." He peered at Gabriel. "You're sure your magic is alright? A spell like this might take a little much out of you."

"I feel fine." It was getting very irritating that this year had brought up so many times where Gabriel had to reassure others of how he felt.

"If you're sure..." Lupin paused. "Even so, I'd like you to hold off on practicing it on your own."

"Sure." Yeah, right.

"You've made wonderful progress, though...give it one more try."

* * *

Gabriel came back to the common room half an hour later. He hadn't managed to get the animal part of his patronus quite yet, but he was sure he had made out a wing. Figured that it would be some sort of bird.

But he was distracted almost immediately by something that had been nagging at him for ages. There had been a very faint trace of Grace lingering around in the back of his mind ever since shortly after his last conversation with Balthazar, and it had been growing steadily stronger. Gabriel was determined to figure out what it was, but the fact that it was getting stronger practically did the work for him, and the result hit him as he entered the common room.

Gabriel nearly staggered under the huge energy signal. It washed over him quickly, leaving only a trace behind, and Gabriel felt slightly sick as he realized what it meant.

It had been getting stronger because it was coming from somewhere - one of the other Earths. And Gabriel knew it only all too well.

Only one thing put out an flare that passed so quickly like that. If it had been a regular angel, maybe the flare wouldn't have reached quite this far. But if it had-

That meant Raphael was dead.

And Gabriel was the last living archangel.

* * *

The end of break came quickly, and with it the return of all his classmates. Gabriel put on his usual cheerful demeanor, telling himself that he didn't care if Raphael was dead and technically Michael was still alive..

Just locked up in Hell with Lucifer.

But no one saw into his internal debate, and besides, the air was thick with excitement for _another _Quidditch game. Ravenclaw was playing, which meant that the entire House was looking forward to it and yes, Gabriel did have to come because he'd refused to go to all the other games and the dementors weren't going to come to this one because now the headmaster knew to forbid them.

"What, and they listen to him?"

Either way, Gabriel somehow found himself sitting in the Ravenclaw stands the day of the game. He couldn't even use the excuse of weather, because it was sunny [if a bit chilly] out.

Hermione had been rather subdued as they walked down to the pitch. Apparently, she and Ron had gotten into a huge fight after Crookshanks had, supposedly, killed Ron's rat - or at least that was what Ron was saying. Hermione was insisting that Crookshanks hadn't done anything.

Honestly, Gabriel didn't care about the pets, but Ron was now being so nasty to Hermione that he wondered whether he shouldn't give the boy another nightmare. Honestly, all this over a rat?

A whistle blew shrilly and fifteen people rose into the air, Hooch staying right in front of the tower which held the teacher's seats. There was a boy with dreadlocks sitting next to McGonagall, and he was speaking into a large megaphone.

"And they're off, lots of tension this match, next one versus Hufflepuff will be the match for the cup! The Quaffle is being tossed around fairly fast but Spinnet of Gryffindor gains possession, what an excellent Chaser that girl is-"

"Jordan!"

"Sorry, Professor."

"Is he always like that?" Gabriel asked Michael, who was grinning.

"Yeah, Lee Jordan always commentates. Professor McGonagall's constantly yelling at him to get back on task."

"Katie Bell speeding towards the Ravenclaw goalposts - she shoots - YES!"

There was a groan from the Ravenclaws around them that was nearly drowned in cheering from the Gryffindor end.

"What?"

"They scored."

"I can't see anything, we're too low down," Gabriel grumbled. The players were scarlet and blue figures, constantly moving around the pitch so it was difficult to tell who was who.

"Harry..."

"Fine. I'm watching the game. I also have no idea what's going on."

"You could have asked me to explain." Michael descended into a mess of talking, pointing out positions and players and balls as Gryffindor scored several more times. Ravenclaw got a couple of shots in as far as Gabriel could tell, but he wasn't listening to the commentary and instead just watched the players fly around. Broomsticks went fairly fast, it seemed.

The game ended when two of the players, a Ravenclaw with jet-black hair and a Gryffindor, both went shooting after a tiny gold ball which had been flitting around the pitch the entire time. One of them managed to catch it and the entire Gryffindor side exploded, while the people around Gabriel slumped in their seats.

"What?"

"Gryffindor just won," Michael said moodily.

"What, because they caught that ball?"

"You could see the snitch?"

"I don't understand this game at all."

* * *

"What's going on?"

"No idea."

Gabriel sat up irritably. "Do you mind? It's three am!"

The other boys in the dorm looked over at him all at the same time. "Something's happened," Anthony said. "The prefects all went downstairs just now and Flitwick's down there too, listen."

Faint voices were drifting up the staircase from the common room. Curious, Gabriel swung out of bed and went over to the door.

"What are you doing?" hissed someone else, but Gabriel crept out of the doorway and to a point on the stairs where he could hear what was going on.

"...in again?!"

"I'm afraid so. We're searching the castle, but you must make sure that no one leaves the tower."

"Yes, sir."

"How did Black get in?"

"We don't know. If you'll excuse me, I have to go help the rest of the professors. Davies, make sure everyone's here."

"Of course, sir."

Gabriel hurried backwards as footsteps came up the stairs.

"What is it?" asked Anthony as he came back in.

"Sirius Black again."

"He broke in again?"

"Must have."

The door creaked open and one of the prefects poked his head in, relaxing slightly when he saw all four of them. "Get to bed," he whispered. "You've got classes tomorrow."

No one made a move to go to their beds until well after the prefect had left.

* * *

It turned out that Sirius Black had broken in again, and once again gone to Gryffindor tower. But more than that - this time, he'd gotten in and [according to the story going around] nearly killed Ron Weasley before Ron woke up and alerted everyone else.

Evidence of tighter security could be seen everywhere. Flitwick was spotted teaching the front doors to recognize a large picture of Black, and everything from cracks in the walls to mouse holes was being boarded up. According to Hermione, the guardian portrait had been sacked, and the Fat Lady returned to her place with a couple of security trolls.

Fortunately, the statue of the witch remained unguarded and totally free of any hindrance, which meant that Gabriel's path to Hogsmeade was clear.

Ron had become something of a celebrity, since it was he who had been attacked. He was perfectly willing to tell the story to anyone who wanted to hear it, and plenty of people did.

"I dunno why he just left, though," he remarked to Gabriel as they were partnered for a Transfiguration project. "I mean, if he'd got the wrong bed, why not just - you know-" Ron made a slicing motion across his throat, apparently unwilling to say it. "-And move on?"

"Well, you'd already woken your dormmates up, right?" Gabriel asked. "They'd start yelling and he'd have to kill the whole House to get out."

"I suppose," said Ron. "Poor Neville, though."

"What about him?"

Neville Longbottom, who was apparently notorious for forgetting the password into the tower, had written them all down to remember them, and Sirius Black had somehow gotten ahold of the list. Thus, Neville was in disgrace, and Gryffindor had been docked hundreds of points. He'd even gotten a screaming letter in the mail which was called a Howler.

"We'll never make the cup now," Ron had complained about the point loss. "Not even with the points we won from the game."

"I suppose you'd like me to be regretful about that," Gabriel said dryly.

* * *

Gabriel bumped into someone as he left the library. It was Hermione.

"Oh - sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going-"

"Hermione, what the hell happened to you?" Her eyes were red, as if she'd been crying.

"Nothing, Harry, now can you-"

"No." Gabriel stretched out an arm to stop her getting in the library. "What on earth is going on? You look horrible."

"Harry, let me through, I've got stuff to look up-"

"Homework can wait-"

"No it can't!" Hermione shrieked at him.

"Hermione, you look like you've had a breakdown!"

She looked on the verge of tears, and Gabriel felt a stab of slight guilt. "Harry, please, I'm just trying to get everything done..."

"What's so important? Hermione, if you're crying over homework-"

"My classes are fine!" Hermione shoved past him and Gabriel let his arm fall because if he really tried to stop her then something was going to get broken. Instead, he followed her into the library.

"Hermione-"

"Leave me alone!"

"What is so important that you're sacrificing your health?"

Hermione almost slammer her books onto the table. "Harry, I can handle it! I've just got a lot of homework and then I was going to help Hagrid with his case-"

"How much-"

"I'm fine!"

"No, Hermione, you're obviously not!"

Hermione stared at him for a moment and then broke down.

Gabriel stared, slightly panicked, as Hermione started sniffling. "I'm sorry," she said. "I've just got so much to do..."

"Er-" Gabriel tried patting her shoulder. It didn't seem to help. "D'you want help?"

"I can do it," Hermione said tearfully. "I just need to calm down and do it."

"Hermione, you're going to drive yourself crazy." Gabriel looked properly at her bag, which was packed so full of books that it barely closed. "You're taking every single class they offer, you just don't have enough time!"

"I do," Hermione sniffed. "I just can't-"

"Everyone's got a limit! You're doing all this and, what, helping Hagrid with some sort of mystery?"

"It's his Hippogriff," Hermione informed him miserably. "It attacked one of the Slytherins on the first day and now they're trying to get it executed-"

"And all this on top of Ron refusing to speak to you?" Over a rat, really. Gabriel was definitely going to do something. "You should have asked Michael or me for help!"

"I can do it-'

"Hermione, you're sitting here with eleven classes' worth of homework plus a bunch of extra crap. That's too much for one person."

"I've been getting through it all year," Hermione said. "I can do it now-"

"Hermione," Gabriel said firmly. "Listen to me. I don't care how smart you are. I don't care how much of this homework gets done. You are trying to do too much. And your _schoolwork _is not more important than making sure you're okay."

"I'm fine-"

"Says the girl crying in front of me."

Hermione sniffed loudly. "I'll be okay, I just need to calm down-"

"You need to _rest."_

"No, I've got to finish this-"

"Hermione. You're going to end up exhausted if you try to keep doing this."

"Harry-"

"No." Gabriel moved in between Hermione and the table. "None of this is getting touched until you're okay."

Hermione stared at him incredulously. "Harry-"

"I will bring Madam Pomfrey into this if I have to."

"Harry, I'm not ill! Let me do my homework!"

"_Hermione-"_

In the end, Gabriel did bring Madam Pomfrey into it.

* * *

Michael sat down at lunch that day. "Where's Hermione?" ne asked. "I didn't see her yesterday."

"She's in the hospital wing," Gabriel told him. "She was freaking out because of all the homework she had so I dragged her up there."

"What?" Michael looked astonished. "But - she seemed alright-"

"I don't think either of us have been paying very good attention this year." Gabriel might have been distracted with a multitude of things, but that didn't mean that he was allowed to ignore his friends.

Michael was frowning at nir plate. "Should we go visit?"

"If I visit she's going to try and curse me. So I'm not. But feel free."

* * *

The next weekend was a Hogsmeade weekend, but Gabriel didn't go down to the village. Instead, he stayed inside and practiced the Patronus charm. He _still _couldn't get it to form a shape, even though it was forming a very solid and bright silver smoke-shield-thing.

Hermione had finally left the hospital wing and she still wasn't speaking to Gabriel. Evidently, she still thought he had been unreasonable. Gabriel started feeling a sort of itch everywhere, something that would fade over time and wasn't really an itch but just more of a sense of _wrongness _that would usually pop up around passing periods and he still couldn't figure out what was causing it when he ran into Lupin in the hallways.

Per Gabriel's usual luck, he had the Marauder's Map open when they did.

Both parties stumbled backwards slightly and Lupin's eyes widened as he noticed the map. "Harry, what - where did you get that?"

"Nowhere," said Gabriel, hurriedly folding it up, but too late, Lupin had recognized it. Somehow.

"Harry, that's very dangerous-"

"It's a map!"

"Yes, I know." Lupin snatched it out of his hands and Gabriel was tempted to summon it back and run. To Gabriel's surprise, Lupin muttered an tapped on the map, making the ink fade away.

"You know how to work it?"

"I knew the people who made it. We were in Hogwarts around the same time."

"Then-"

"Harry," Lupin said sternly. "Tell me you haven't been to Hogsmeade."

Gabriel acted so shocked and offended at the accusation [even though he had] that Lupin actually backed up a little.

"Alright," Lupin put his hands up, map still held in one. "I'm sorry. I was just making sure."

"Can I have the map back, then?"

Lupin glanced down at it. "No," he decided. "I'm afraid that, as a teacher, it's something I can't let you have. Sorry, Harry."

He walked off down the hall.

Gabriel looked after him. He had really hoped that it wouldn't come to breaking into his office.

* * *

In the end, Gabriel decided that Lupin was still a decent teacher and the map really wasn't worth breaking into his office for, if he even kept it in there. Gabriel let it be and figured that if he really needed to he'd make his own map of Hogwarts.

He hadn't seen Hermione in ages, though according to Ron they had finally made up, of sorts, and stopped cold-shouldering each other.

"It was because of Hagrid," Ron told him. "He lost his case, you know, with Buckbeak-"

"The Hippogriff?"

"Yeah, 'cause there was this whole mess with the Slytherins - anyway he lost the case, and so we've only got the appeal to stop them executing Buckbeak."

"And you're helping her?"

"Yeah, only it's not going so well. We haven't found a lot of evidence to help, and there's only been one recorded case so far where a creature got off, and that was because it was a Manticore mauling and everyone was too scared to go near it."

The only time Gabriel saw her anymore was in their shared classes, and she never partnered up with him or Michael. It was in Divination that her temper seemed to get the better of her.

Trelawney had just finished predicting that Gabriel would die by the hand of a large dog [which she called a Grim] when Hermione spoke up.

"Not the Grim again," she said loudly, closing her book with a thump. Everyone in the class looked at her.

This was, perhaps, understandable. Trelawney had predicted Gabriel's death by Grim at least twelve times since Christmas break, and during their palmistry unit kept flinching whenever she looked at his hand. It was getting very irritating.

Trelawney surveyed Hermione with a distant look. "My dear, if I may say so...I perceive very little of the Sight about you...perhaps you do not think widely enough for future-telling..."

There was a moment's silence.

"Fine!" Hermione said suddenly, shoving her book into her bag. "Fine! You know what? I don't care!" She swung her bag over her shoulder. "I'm leaving!"

And to the astonishment of everyone in the classroom, she did exactly that, striding over to the trapdoor, kicking it open, and climbing down.

"Ooooh!" said another Gryffindor suddenly. "Professor! You said it ages ago, I just remembered! '_Around Easter, one of our number will leave us forever'!"_

Trelawney gave the girl a sad smile. "I did indeed forsee that Miss Granger would leave us...however, I had hoped that I was wrong...the Inner Eye is often misled..."

Even having dropped Divination, Hermione appeared in classes even more tired-looking than Lupin. The Easter holidays were hardly relaxing, and even though exams were months away work was piled on. Gabriel bought a dictation quill off one of the upper years while they were too distracted to really realize what they were doing and used that to get his work done faster so he had time to think of ideas to keep Hermione from keeling over in the middle of something, while also _not _letting her know that he was doing anything.

It was more difficult than he anticipated, mostly because he kept forgetting that he'd used so much of his Grace saving Balthazar's life. But Gabriel managed little things.

Hermione probably got suspicious, but even so she never asked Gabriel about it.

The last game of the Quidditch season was approaching in higher stakes than ever before. Gabriel did his best to remove himself from the fervor, and counted himself lucky that Ravenclaw hadn't won the last game or it would have been even worse.

The Cup Final was so popular that nearly everyone turned out to watch it - even Hermione was going, but Gabriel [through liberal use of what he remembered of the map and his invisibility cloak] managed to stay out of the way and avoid being dragged along to watch the game.

He had no idea what happened but he assumed that Gryffindor won, from the way all the red-wearing supporters were cheering when they got back to the castle.

The upcoming exams distracted most from the victory over Hufflepuff. Though the weather outside was warm and inviting, they were all sitting inside frantically revising and making sure they'd got the right notes.

Gabriel thought he did fairly well - he didn't have to make up his History of Magic bit, at any point. Defense was the most interesting exam - Lupin had set up a sort of obstacle course where they had to get past several of the creatures they had learned about over the course of the year. Lupin watched him as Gabriel climbed back out of the trunk with the Boggart, but Gabriel didn't look back - Not-Lucifer had appeared again and he was trying to get back to a state he could reasonably produce a Patronus in.

There was someone in a pinstriped cloak standing on the steps of the school when Gabriel came up after the exam. Gabriel ignored him, but he was sure the man was watching him - not such an uncommon occurrence, due to his vessel's fame.

Divination was the last one they had, and definitely the weirdest.

The exam itself was fine. Gabriel pretended to see a load of stuff in the crystal ball. Trelawney wrote a lot on the parchment perched in her lap. The weird bit came when Gabriel had turned around and was heading towards the door.

_"It will happen tonight," _said a deep, hoarse voice. Gabriel whirled around.

Trelawney had gone all stiff in her chair and was staring at nothing, a few feet to the left of Gabriel's head. She spoke again, in the same hoarse voice.

_"The Dark Lord lies alone and friendless, abandoned by his followers. His servant has been chained these twelve years. Tonight, before midnight, the servant will break free and set out to rejoin his master. The Dark Lord will rise again with his servant's aid, greater and more terrible than ever before. Tonight...before midnight...the servant will set out...to rejoin his master..."_

Trelawney gave a gasp and a start like a person suddenly waking up.

"Dear me...I must have dozed off..." she muttered, then noticed Gabriel still standing there with an open mouth. "Is there something wrong?"

"No," Gabriel said eventually. "No, I don't think so." He descended the silver ladder, mind whirling. What the hell had that been?

* * *

**Ooooooooooooh, we approach the climax! I had to cut it off here because it made the most sense and this chapter was long enough without adding the big finale to it. Hermione's going through a rough time, and Ron's just kind of rude I guess. Scabbers wasn't that great, come on.  
**

**Read and review!**


	26. The Shrieking Shack

**We're getting closer! Very close! Will I be nice and free Sirius? That remains to be seen...**

**Gabriel is in a bit of trouble in this chapter! I hope you guys like the little twist. I made the scene in the Shrieking shack a lot shorter than it originally was, mainly because I didn't want to copy directly from the book.  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter**

* * *

On his way back down from the North Tower [and still puzzling over whether Trelawney had seriously given him a real prediction] Gabriel ran into Ron.

"Hey-" Gabriel stopped at the look on Ron's face. "What happened?"

"Lost the appeal," Ron said weakly. "They're going to execute the Hippogriff."

"Oh." Gabriel still had no idea what a Hippogriff was. He also had no idea what to say.

"They can't just kill him," Ron said angrily. "I've looked up loads of stuff, and he hasn't done anything wrong!"

"Sorry."

"Yeah," Ron muttered. "Just wish we'd done a bit better is all..."

Gabriel saw Ron after dinner as well - he and Hermione were standing in the entrance hall and arguing in quiet voices as people streamed out of the Hall, going back to their common rooms. Gabriel drifted a bit closer. Michael, noticing this, followed him.

"We've got to go visit him!"

"Ron, we can't go out on the grounds, we're not allowed! They'll see us!"

"Who are you going to visit?" Michael asked.

Ron and Hermione both turned around sharply. By now the entrance hall was almost completely deserted, everyone going elsewhere to celebrate the end of exams.

"We - er - we were going to see Hagrid," Ron admitted. "But we're not allowed outside this late-"

"I think," said Gabriel, grinning slightly, "That I may have a solution."

"What, a spell?" Hermione asked dryly.

"Better." Gabriel reached into his pocket and managed to pull his invisibility cloak out - lucky he'd started keeping it on him. "How about an invisibility cloak?"

* * *

"I can't believe you never told me about this," Hermione hissed as the four of them crossed the grounds under the cloak. Hagrid's hut was, apparently, right next to the forest.

"Slipped my mind."

"You told Michael!"

"I thought he told you," Michael put in quickly, obviously unwilling to be blamed for anything. Ron shushed them all as they got closer to the door of the hut, and knocked twice.

The giant groundskeeper opened the door and looked around confusedly.

"Hagrid, it's us!" whispered Hermione. "We're just invisible!"

"Yeh shouldn've come!" Hagrid said in a hoarse whisper, but he let them in all the same.

Gabriel whipped the cloak off of them and stuffed it back in his pocket as soon as the door closed. Hagrid seemed surprised by the two new additions. Mostly, though, he looked rather helpless.

"Where's Buckbeak?" Ron asked.

"I left him outside," Hagrid said miserably. "Didn' want 'is last moments to be the inside of my hut..."

His hands were trembling so violently that the milk jug he'd been attempting to pour went crashing to the ground.

"Here, I'll do that," Hermione said hurriedly while Gabriel glanced out the window. There was some sort of grey, winged creature tethered in a pumpkin patch who must have been the Hippogriff.

There was a shriek from behind him. Gabriel whirled around and saw Hermione staring with astonishment into another jug.

"Ron, I don't believe it, it's Scabbers!"

"What?"

Hermione turned the jug over and the rat came out, scrambling around on the table before Ron scoops it up.

"Scabbers! What are you doing here? Ow!"

The rat looks frantic, clawing at Ron's hands to try and get away.

"What's that for? There aren't any cats here, see?"

Hagrid had suddenly gone very pale and was looking out of the window. "They're comin'..."

A group of people were headed down the sloping lawn towards the hut.

"Yeh gotta go," Hagrid whispered, while Gabriel pulled the cloak back out. "They can't find yeh here..."

Hagrid opened the back door and let them out into his backyard. Hermione and Ron were reluctant to leave.

"Hagrid, we can tell them the truth-"

"They can't kill him-"

Even Michael looked a little upset, glancing towards the Hippogriff.

"Go!" Hagrid whispered as Gabriel threw the cloak over them. "There's nothing yeh can do..."

The group of four went back up the lawn towards the castle as the front door closed with a sharp snap. Hermione was silent, in a kind of horrified way, and Ron was still struggling with his rat. The sky had turned a sort of yellowish orange, since the sun was going down, and every time someone turned around to look back at the hut they nearly got blinded by the light in their eyes.

Ron suddenly stopped dead.

"Ron, come on-" Michael began exasperatedly.

"It's Scabbers, he won't stay put-"

The rat was going berserk, and Gabriel was mulling over the pros and cons of kicking Ron so he'd let the thing go and get rid of the problem. Unfortunately, the invisibility didn't apply to others under the cloak.

"Ron, please," Hermione said, slightly tearfully, "Let's go, I don't want to hear it-"

"I can't-"

A door opened behind them and there was a faint mutter of voices.

"I can't hold him - Scabbers, come on, it's me-"

The rat was squealing now, not quite loudly enough to cover the sounds coming from behind them. The voices from behind them silenced suddenly, and then there came the unmistakeable swish-thud of an axe.

Hermione clapped her hands over her mouth. "They did it."

The four of them stood still under the invisibility cloak, Ron still struggling with his rat. Light was fading fast now, the last bit of sun casting bloody rays over the grounds.

"Come on," Michael said eventually. "We can't go back, he'll be in worse trouble, we've got to go back to the castle..."

They continued walking up the sloping lawn, darkness settling around them and only the lights in the windows showing where the castle was.

"OUCH!"

They all shushed Ron at the same time. "Stop it, they'll hear you!" Hermione hissed.

"He bit me!" Ron said, sounding outraged. "He won't - stay - put-"

There was something slinking across the lawn towards them. Something with reflective eyes and a bottle-brush tail.

"No, Crookshanks!" Hermione moaned. "Go away!"

"Scabbers-!"

The rat had finally slipped out of Ron's hands. In one bound the cat was after it, and before anyone could stop him Ron had thrown off the cloak and sprinted after them.

"Ron, no!" After a moment's indecision, Hermione followed. Gabriel and Michael looked at each other.

Michael took off after them as well.

"What the hell," Gabriel muttered, stuffing the cloak back in his pocket again. "Might as well see what's going on."

He could hear Ron shouting already, and there were several slightly darker, humanlike shapes in the darkness ahead.

"Get away from him - get away - Scabbers come _here-"_

Someone fell over with a thump.

"_Gotcha! _Get off you stinking-"

Gabriel almost fell over Ron as the boy rolled over, and had to jump to the side to avoid exactly that. He was rolling on the ground, trying to keep ahold of his rat.

"We need to get back under the cloak," Hermione panted. "Dumbledore - the Minster - they'll be up here in a minute-"

But before she could continue, something else moved in the darkness. It was heading straight towards them - a gigantic dog which was nearly invisible in the night.

Gabriel dived to the side to avoid it as the dog leaped and it hit the ground behind him. Hermione yelled something but the dog had turned around and instead of going for Gabriel again its jaw had fastened around Ron's arm and it was dragging him away.

Michael shouted and lunged towards the redhead but something whooshed out of the darkness and hit him away, sending Michael skidding backwards. Gabriel raced towards nir.

"What the hell was that?" Michael shouted. Ne had a long, thin cut across one cheek. The dog and Ron were disappearing into some sort of tunnel and Ron had hooked a foot over the entrance to try and stop himself from being pulled in, but just then there was a loud crack, a strangled yell, and his foot vanished along with the rest of him.

Hermione tried to go after him but she was tossed back as well, and now Gabriel could make out what had done it. It was the huge willow tree he'd seen on the grounds, except now its branches were waving wildly, and it appeared to be planted right over the tunnel entrance. The branches swooped past them, preventing any of them from getting to the tunnel.

"Harry - we've got to go for help-"

"Are you mad?" Michael demanded. "That thing's big enough to eat him if we're gone too long-"

Gabriel, however, was watching in disbelief as Crookshanks wove through the mess of waving branches and hit a knot on the trunk of the tree. The willow abruptly froze in place, absolutely still.

"Crookshanks!" Hermione whispered. She was grabbing Gabriel's arm, all arguments seemingly forgotten. "How did he-"

"No idea." Gabriel was already heading into the tunnel - though it was less 'rescue Ron' and more 'what the hell is going on here'. Michael and Hermione followed him.

Hermione lit her wand as they entered the tunnel, casting a shaky light over it. It was dirty and uneven, with the occasional root poking through the roof, but as they walked further these stopped appearing. The tunnel went on and on, as long and as winding as the one which led into Honeydukes.

"We must be under Hogsmeade by now," whispered Michael, voicing Gabriel's thoughts.

"Must be," Gabriel agreed. "This was on that map...Fred and George said no one uses it because of the willow, but obviously someone showed Crookshanks that shortcut..."

The tunnel began to rise eventually, showing that they were near the end, and then it gave one final twist and Crookshanks [who had been walking in front of them the whole time] abruptly vanished from view.

The tunnel led into a very dusty room, obviously unused for ages. All three of them had their wands out now, and in the light provided it was easy to see that the furniture was absolutely trashed. There were claw marks and chunks taken out of them, the wallpaper was peeling, and every window had been boarded up.

"We must be in the Shrieking Shack," Michael whispered. "But ghosts can't do _this..."_

There was a creak from overhead and everyone's eyes darted to the ceiling.

"Upstairs," Gabriel hissed into the sudden silence, and they all carefully moved towards a visible [crumbling] staircase.

"Nox," Hermione whispered as they reached the landing, Michael and Gabriel doing the same. The darkness was encompassing, and Gabriel took a moment to let his eyes adjust before creeping towards the already-open door.

Gabriel kicked it open.

There was a large, dusty four-poster bed inside, on top of which Crookshanks was curled into a little loaf and purring contentedly. On the floor next to the bed was Ron, leg at a strange angle and pale.

"Ron!" Gabriel glanced around at the room as Hermione and Michael rushed over. "Are you alright?" Hermione asked.

"Where's the dog?" Michael questioned, nearly at the same time.

"Not a dog..."

"What?" Gabriel looked sharply at the redhead.

"He's the dog...an Animagus..."

Gabriel whirled around as the door shut with a snap.

There was a man behind it, with a sunken face and a load of matted hair. He was wearing tattered clothes and looked like barely more than a skeleton, and was completely unmistakeable as Sirius Black.

And he was about a foot away from Gabriel.

Wouldn't this be wonderful.

"Expelliarmus!"

Gabriel dodged the spell and it hit Hermione and Michael instead, their wands yanking themselves out of their hands and landing in Black's. Gabriel had his up and pointing at Black before the man could cast again, and they were both frozen, looking at each other.

Black seemed to be fixated on him. "I knew you'd come," he rasped. He sounded like he hadn't talked in ages. "For your friend...your father would have done the same thing. Brave of you, not to run for a teacher...I'm grateful...it will make things much easier."

Something thumped behind them and Black's eyes flickered over Gabriel's shoulder. Gabriel didn't turn around.

"If you want to kill Harry, you'll have to kill us too," a voice that sounded like Ron declared, and something like disbelief flared in Gabriel's chest.

"Lie down," Black said quietly. "You will damage that leg even further."

That didn't sound like something a serial killer would say.

"Did you hear me?" Ron demanded.

"There will only be one murder tonight." Okay, that sounded much more ominous.

"So what?" Gabriel decided to do what he did best - talk. "You're going to kill me and then let then just go? And what, make your escape? No, see, I think you're underestimating my friends."

Black looked at him oddly.

"Really, this was all very badly thought out." Continued Gabriel. "Now all three of them know about your weird dog thing, which I'm guessing you've been using to avoid dementors and the like. You let them walk, I wonder if they'll try and keep that a secret? Considered you are threatening to murder me here." Gabriel smirked slightly. "That is, if you really do end up managing to."

"Harry," Hermione whispered in the background. "What are you doing?"

"You've had plenty of time," Gabriel said, not answering Hermione. "You could have just dragged me in here and been done with it before anyone showed up. I came in here a while ago and you haven't made a single move towards me, except to disarm me. Why?"

Gabriel's want was still unerringly pointed at Black, who though he still had one of his own was letting it hang at his side. "I don't have time to explain myself to you," he growled.

Something creaked downstairs.

"WE'RE UP HERE!" Hermione yelled before Black could do anything. "SIRIUS BLACK - QUICK!"

Black made a startled movement and footsteps were thundering up the stairs and the door slammed open for the second time.

Lupin came hurtling in, his wand raised. His eyes flitted over Black and the entire scenario - Gabriel facing Black, Hermione and Michael next to Ron on the floor with a broken leg - and then back to Black.

"Expelliarmus!"

But it wasn't just Black's wand which was yanked away, but Gabriel's as well. He hadn't been expecting it, and so Lupin caught his wand easily and stowed it.

"Where is he, Sirius?"

What. The Hell. Was Lupin talking about.

For a few moments Black didn't move at all. Then, slowly, he brought up his hand and pointed at Ron.

"What-" Gabriel turned to look as well. The other three looked just as bewildered as he felt.

"But then," Lupin muttered, as if talking to himself, "Why hasn't he shown himself? Unless..." his eyes went back to Black. "Unless you switched without telling me?"

Black nodded, again not speaking.

Gabriel felt that this was a good time to interrupt.

"Okay, would someone please explain what the hell is going on?" he demanded.

Lupin didn't answer. He stooped, picked up Black's wand, and handed it back to him.

Before anyone could speak, Hermione started shouting.

"I DON'T BELIEVE IT! YOU'RE ON HIS SIDE!"

"Hermione-"

"You and him-"

"Hermione, please-"

"I didn't say anything-"

"Hermione, calm down-"

"You've been helping him?" Gabriel asked, more out of disbelief than any sort of betrayal.

"You're wrong," Lupin said desperately. "I haven't-"

"NO!" Hermione shrieked. "Harry, don't trust him! He must have been helping Black into the castle, he wants you dead too - HE'S A WEREWOLF!"

There was a ringing silence. Everyone's eyes were now on the three gathered by the door - Gabriel, Lupin, and Black, though admittedly Gabriel was much farther away from the other two.

Gabriel spoke first. "I know he's a werewolf," he said out loud, making Michael and Ron look at him in disbelief. "But I seriously doubt he wants me dead if he's been teaching me the Patronus charm or giving me perfectly safe and unpoisoned cups of tea."

"I don't," said Lupin, looking relieved. "And I haven't been helping Sirius get into the castle, either."

Ron made another effort to get up and collapsed with a grunt of pain. When Lupin made as though to go towards him he scooted backwards, hitting the side of the four-poster."_Get away from me, werewolf!"_

Lupin stopped, and with an obvious effort, turned to Hermione.

"How long have you known?"

"Ages," Hermione whispered. "Ever since we did that essay for Snape."

"He'll be pleased," said Lupin darkly. "That was what he set the essay for, of course."

"And he was right!" Michael suddenly yelled. "He didn't trust you, did he, and we shouldn't have!"

"Michael-"

"No!" Hermione started shout too, and soon Ron joined in until there was just a load of incomprehensible yelling and before Gabriel fully realized what he was doing he snapped his fingers.

Wands disappeared from hands with a crack. Lupin and Black looked down at their hands in alarm and then to Gabriel as he tucked two wands into his pocket, where three others waited.

Pushing down his panic because _oh shit I don't have a good excuse for that, _Gabriel glared at the room as a whole. "Everyone," he said calmly, "is going to sit down until we figure out exactly what is going on."

"Harry," Lupin said slowly. "How did you-"

Gabriel held up a hand. "Story first," he said, then pointed at Sirius. "You. Why'd you point at Ron?"

"I wasn't pointing at the boy," Sirius said hoarsely, staring at Gabriel. "I was pointing at the rat."

"My rat?" Ron said. "What d'you want with Scabbers?"

"His name's not Scabbers," said Lupin. "He's an Aminagus, by the name of Peter Pettigrew."

Absolute silence.

"He's what?" asked Michael disbelievingly. "But Pettigrew's dead - you killed him!" ne pointed accusingly at Sirius.

"I meant to," Sirius snarled. "But little Peter got the best of me - not this time!" he made as if to go for Ron and Gabriel shoved him into a chair that had been hurriedly snapped over.

"We are discussing this calmly," he threatened, wand pointed straight at Sirius. "No one is killing anyone until everything has been explained. Understand?"

Sirius didn't nod, but eyed the wand warily.

"Lupin." Gabriel looked up. "How do you know the rat's a man."

"Harry-" Hermione looked at him in shock.

"We have two options, Hermione," Gabriel interrupted. "One, they're both crazy and we can humor then before handing this guy over to the dementors." Sirius jerked in the chair. "Or Two, they're telling the truth and there's a possibility that the rat is, actually, an Animagus."

"You're crazy!" Ron shouted.

"I'm not, actually. Come on. Either the rat is a man or it's really a rat. If it is a man, we deal with it. If not, then we'll only be proved right." Gabriel explained further, his wand tip not wavering despite the fact that he wasn't even looking at Sirius anymore.

"I'm not giving you my rat!" Ron held the rat tightly, despite the fact that this entire time it had been doing its best to escape.

"Listen to me," Lupin said quickly. "You remember the map...Harry told you about it, no doubt...I was looking at it tonight, when to my surprise I saw you out on the grounds. And not only that, but the five of you-"

"Four of us!"

"Five of you," Lupin repeated calmly, "Had an unexpected member...someone I'd long since thought was dead...Peter Pettigrew..."

"What about Black?" Gabriel asked. "Why all this fuss about Pettigrew?"

"You know the story of how your parents had a secret keeper," Sirius spoke suddenly. "I was going to be that person originally...but I knew that everyone would immediately know it was me...I convinced your parents to switch to Peter at the last second..."

"You're lying," Michael said shakily.

"He's telling the truth," said Gabriel, whose attention had switched back to Sirius.

"And how do we know you are?" Michael suddenly shouted. "You just wandlessly took their wands! You could be lying to us to! You haven't tried to explain _yourself_!"

Gabriel swallowed down any guilt. "No," he said evenly. "That's because I don't have a good explanation. But these two do-" he gestured to Lupin and Sirius, "-and so they're going to explain themselves. Either way, someone in this room is spying for Voldemort-" They all flinched at the name, "-And I'm not explaining any info that might get retold to that guy. He's a dick."

It seemed to take a moment for them to process that Gabriel had actually just called Voldemort a dick. Meanwhile, Gabriel glanced downstairs and subtly knocked out whoever had followed them in. No need for them to be interrupted.

He faced Lupin again.

"Explain," he said. "You say Pettigrew's an Animagus, but how come you're sure that one's him?"

"His finger," Sirius said quietly. "The biggest bit they ever found of him...that rat's missing his toe on the front paw..."

Lupin was looking at the rat in astonishment. "Of course," he breathed. "When he confronted you...he must have cut off his own finger and transformed so everyone would think it had been you..."

"And I assume you're going to say that Pettigrew cast the spell the blew up the street?"

"He did," Sirius snapped, but still didn't get up as during the whole time Gabriel's wand had not moved from his throat. "Cornered me and framed me...pretended I'd been the secret keeper...and it worked..."

Well. This was certainly an unexpected turn of events. And the man hadn't lied once.

"Where's your proof?"

"In Peter," Sirius said.

"Come off it," Ron said weakly. "You're saying you broke out of Azkaban for my rat? I mean...there are millions of them!"

"How did you find Peter?" asked Lupin frowning. Sirius dug a newspaper clipping out of his robes. It featured a picture of the Weasley family, the rat perched on Ron's shoulder, and was an article about how they'd won the gold to go to Egypt.

"I recognized him," Sirius said. "There's only one rat like that, missing that finger..."

"He's been in my family for ages!" Ron protested. "He probably just got into a fight with another rat!"

"Ages?" Lupin questioned. "Twelve years, I'd bet...you never wondered why he was living so long? Most rats don't."

"We've been taking good care of him!"

"Ron, seriously," Gabriel said dryly. "Even if they are crazy, that's a hell of a lot of coincidences."

Ron swallowed and looked around at them, as if for support. Hermione looked conflicted, as if she realized the logic of at least seeing if they were right. Michael kept glancing at Gabriel out of the corner of nir eye.

"You're serious," Ron said.

"Ron," Lupin said firmly. "Give me the rat and we'll prove this once and for all."

Ron hesitated. "What are you going to do to him?"

"Just force him to reveal himself," Lupin said calmly. "If Scabbers is a rat it won't hurt him."

Reluctantly, Ron handed over the rat, who started struggling harder than ever. Lupin glanced over to Gabriel.

"Er - we'll need our wands."

"What? Oh." Gabriel dug into his pocket and pulled out all five. Sirius did a double take and reached down to his own pocket, as if conforming that they were really gone.

"How did you-"

"Never mind that," Gabriel said idly. "Which one is your again? Oh, that's Hermione's." He tossed Hermione her wand, and then Michael nirs, and finally through process of elimination found Lupin's. "Here."

Lupin took it and the other one as well, tossing it to Sirius, who Gabriel allowed out of the chair.

"At the same time?" Lupin asked Sirius, and he nodded as they both faced the rat held tightly in Lupin's hand.

"One - two - three!"

There was a bright flash of light. The rat was dropped and it was like they were watching a fast-forward film, which resulted in a cowering, balding man sitting on the floor of the shack.

"Hello, Peter." Lupin said, perfectly calm, as if rats frequently turned into old friends around him.

"S-Sirius...R-Remus..." his voice was squeaky even as a human. "My old friends..."

"No," Sirius growled, stepping forwards. "You don't get to call us that. After what you did to James and Lily!"

"They would have killed me!" Pettigrew said, backing up hurriedly. "He would have killed me, Sirius, how could I fight-"

"How?" Lupin asked in a voice full of barely repressed anger. "The same way we all fought against him, Peter!"

"They would have kill-"

"THEN YOU SHOULD HAVE DIED!" Sirius bellowed "DIED RATHER THAN BETRAY YOUR FRIENDS, AS WE WOULD HAVE DONE FOR YOU!"

Everyone was watching in either fascinated horror or [in Gabriel's case] just watching. Lupin and Sirius both squared their shoulders and pointed their wands at Peter.

"You should have known, Peter," said Sirius quietly. "If Voldemort didn't kill you, we would."

"Stop!" said Hermione suddenly.

Everyone turned to look at her.

"You can't kill him," she said in a quavering voice. "Then - you'd go back to Azkaban, right? And no one would ever know that Pettigrew was the one to betray Harry's parents...we can give him to the dementors."

Pettigrew went a nasty shade of white at that. Sirius stared at Hermione. Then, very slowly, he lowered his wand.

"The dementors are horrible," he said quietly. "Worst thing in the world. I don't know how I stayed sane, with that awful cold and hopelessness everywhere...I think my animagus form helped...but it never stopped. I had nothing happy to think about. It's worse than death, to know you're there forever..."

He turned away. "I can think of no better punishment."

"No!" shrieked Pettigrew. Lupin flicked his wand at the man and ropes bound themselves around Pettigrew, so that he almost looked like a mummy.

"Let's bring him back up to the castle," Lupin suggested. "We'll have to explain things to Dumbledore."

They all descended the stairs. Pettigrew had been shackled to Lupin and enchanted to float behind him [since they definitely weren't going to free his legs] but Hermione [who was in the lead] stopped dead when she saw the room they had first entered.

"What in Merlin's name...?" Snape was lying sprawled on the floor. So that was who had been downstairs.

"Snape?" said Sirius incredulously. "What's he doing here?"

"He teaches at the school now," Lupin told him. "I wonder why he's here...and what knocked him unconscious."

"This place is haunted," Michael said.

"No," Lupin still looked puzzled. "It was never haunted. I used this place, on full moons, when I came to school here...the tunnel was created to give me an entrance and the willow planted to prevent anyone stumbling across me." His eyes widened suddenly.

"Sirius."

"What?" Sirius glanced over to see Lupin undoing his half of the shackle and clicking it onto Sirius's arm. "Remus what's wrong?"

"It's the full moon."

Hermione, Michael, and Ron all did their best to back away from Lupin at that. Sirius just looked puzzled. "But - you've got the potion, right?"

Lupin groaned. "I- I've forgotten to take it."

Sirius's eyes widened. "Run!"

They left Lupin behind in the shack, sprinting down the tunnel with Sirius levitating Snape and Pettigrew stumbling along behind him, none of them wanting to deal with a full-grown werewolf at that moment.

The full moon outside lit up the grounds, and luckily there were no dementors in sight.

"What are we going to do?" Michael demanded. "We can't just walk up to the castle with Sirius Black! They'll arrest him before we can say anything!"

"I think Pettigrew might give them a bit of a shock, we can work with that."

"Can we work with you, though?" Ron demanded, being held up by Hermione and bandages that Lupin had conjured tightly wound around his broken leg. "You used some weird magic in there - and you still haven't explained yourself!"

"That again? We've got some bigger problems here!"

"No, he's right," said Hermione stubbornly. "Harry, even some of the greatest wizards can't do wandless magic. _Dumbledore _still uses a wand. And you made everyone's wands appear in your pocket just by snapping your fingers!"

_Jesus Christ they're not going to let this go._

"Look, I promise I'll explain everything later, but right now-"

A howl cut through his sentence. Sirius looked back at the tunnel in horror - they were just out of the willow's reach, but still close enough to realize where the noise had come from.

"Go!" Sirius shouted, just as something huge and furred burst out from the base of the tree.

Gabriel swept the three of them behind him with a thought and he might have heard someone curse as Ron tripped over his bad leg. His arms were spread and Hermione did shriek a little bit when she saw the silver weapon that hadn't been there three seconds ago.

"What-"

Sirius was already turning into his animagus form and Gabriel shouted for him to stop but it was already too late. Pettigrew was left with no minders and he was transforming too, disappearing into the grass. Gabriel had no Grace to go after him and if he had it would leave his friends undefended - Snape, unconscious several feet away where Sirius had dropped him, was certainly going to be no help.

The wolf-Lupin was huge and menacing, growling and amber eyes narrowed at Sirius, who in dog form was standing with back arched in between Gabriel and the others, and Lupin.

They fell on each other with snarls and the fight rolled away from them.

"Go!" Gabriel pushed the others towards the school, but Lupin was flinging Sirius off and rounding on them. Gabriel brandished the angel blade.

"This isn't silver," he said in a low voice, making sure they were all behind him, "But I'd bet it'll hurt just as badly. Back. Away."

Lupin growled again, but his eyes were on the blade - his wolf side obviously could tell when danger was present, and right now Gabriel was the most dangerous thing on the grounds.

The wolf, however, also seemed to be more confident in itself.

It lunged for the group and there was a lot of screaming but Gabriel met it halfway and this was no time to get shirty about giving the Defense teacher a new scar or two. The wolf howled again and backed off quickly, bleeding from two new cuts on its face. It gave Gabriel one look and headed towards the forest, long stride getting it there in a matter of minutes. Gabriel hurried over to where Sirius was still lying. Had Lupin killed him?

Apparently, no. He'd reverted back to human form when he got knocked out and was lying with a large gash across one arm.

"Wake up!" Gabriel was having to use way too much Grace in the last two hours or so.

Sirius woke with a start and sat bolt upright. "What-"

Gabriel hauled him to his feet. "Lupin scarpered into the forest. We're going up to the castle. Come on."

Bewildered, Sirius followed. Hermione, Michael, and Ron were still staring at Gabriel with varying degrees of incredulity and shock.

Of course, even with all that had gone wrong that night, getting up to the castle wouldn't be that easy.

It began with a sudden temperature drop.

It continued with frost creeping along the grass towards them.

And it got even worse when Sirius dropped to his knees.

_Fucking bad luck I cannot get a single break can I._

Dementors were gliding across the lawn towards them, hundreds flocking from all over the grounds. Gabriel drew his wand but he didn't even have a corporeal patronus yet, and the one he could conjure wouldn't stand up to this many. There was no way he'd be able to use Grace against them unless he wanted to pass out and spend another month or two feeling uncomfortably human until enough of it came back.

"Harry-"

"Run!"

"We're not leaving you here!"

"What happened to not trusting me?"

"I don't care!"

_Well at least that particular hurdle isn't as big as I thought it was, _thought Gabriel as the dementors descended on them.

Seconds before he passed out, something silver ripped through them.

* * *

**I was going to continue this but it made the chapter waaaaay too long. You want to have something left for chapter 27, don't you? Besides, I can only write so much and I'm sure you'd rather have the new chapter.  
**

**uh oh...Gabriel screwed up. I wonder what they'll think?**

**Read and review!**


	27. A Secret Revealed

**Heey guys. Hope you liked the last chapter. Will Sirius go free? We still don't know [well, I do]. I know I'm horrible.**

**Just so you know, a bit of an explanation for the hospital wing bit: Ron is out cold because Madam Pomfrey magically sedated him to set his leg. Gabriel and Hermione, obviously, are awake. Michael woke up a bit later than them and was listening in bemusement and didn't speak up soon enough to go with them on their magical time travel journey.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter**

* * *

_You disloyal..._

_They are broken, flawed, abortions!_

_Brother, don't make me do this._

_I know you think you're doing the right thing...but I know where your heart truly lies..._

_...Here_

_Amateur hocus-pocus...don't forget...you learned all your tricks from me, little brother._

* * *

His memories seemed very fuzzy. So did Gabriel's vision, when he managed to get his eyes open. The effects from the dementor ebbed away as Gabriel woke more fully, memories draining back into the corner of his mind.

Everything was white and Gabriel groaned when he realized he was in the hospital wing again.

Gabriel propped himself up on his elbows. Not much time could have passed, because everyone was still in their clothes and outside the window it was still dark. Hermione was lying in the bed next to his, Michael on her other side, and Gabriel could make out Ron lying in a bed opposite him, still out cold and leg now looking much more efficiently bandaged.

Hermione's eyes tracked Gabriel and he quickly lay back down as Madam Pomfrey passed by, not eager to be coddled. Two voices were talking and Gabriel recognized one of them as belonging to Dumbledore.

"Shocking business," said the unfamiliar one. "Miracle none of them died."

"And I assume the dementors are to be removed from the grounds?" That was Dumbledore, who sounded rather upset.

"Of course, of course, Dumbledore...never dreamed they'd try to do something like that to an innocent boy..."

"And what of Black?"

"He'll be going to Azkaban...he'd have been kissed already if you'd just let in the dementors-"

"Minister," Dumbledore sounded suddenly severe. "I will not allow the dementors into Hogwarts. I have already been proved in my belief that it was a bad idea to allow them here as guards in the first place."

"Yes, well..."

"We have already heard Professor Snape's side of the story, and we can only see what these students have to say when they wake up."

"You will alert me when that happens?"

Gabriel faked shifting around in his bed and sat up, glancing around. The conversation abruptly halted, and Madam Pomfrey rushed over.

"You're awake!" She was holding a block of chocolate that looked more like a small boulder. Madam Pomfrey placed it on the bedside table and began breaking it apart with a small hammer.

"Mister Potter." Dumbledore appeared at the end of Gabriel's bed, the same man in the pinstriped cloak from earlier trailing behind him. "What an adventure you've had. Is this to become a theme with your school years?"

"Hopefully not," Gabriel muttered. Dumbledore's eyes twinkled, as the headmaster had obviously heard him.

"Well-" Dumbledore conjured a comfortable-looking armchair out of nowhere and Gabriel felt a stab of jealousy. _He _used to be able to do that. Damn Grace. "I believe the Minster - as well as myself - have several questions for you about what happened."

"Shoot."

The Minister looked confused, but Dumbledore only smiled. "Perhaps you could tell us exactly what happened?"

So Gabriel did.

The Minster's expression grew increasingly more incredulous as the story progressed, and when Gabriel reached the bit where Pettigrew turned back he actually interrupted.

"Mister Potter, you can't be serious."

"No," Gabriel said with a completely straight face. "That's the man you're trying to arrest."

The Minister gaped at him, while Dumbledore's eyes twinkled harder than ever and Christ how does he even do that. Eyes are not meant to do that.

"I'm talking about Black being innocent!" The Minister blustered eventually. "Everyone knows he's guilty-"

"Can't you dig up his old trial records?" Gabriel suggested. "See what got him convicted the first time?"

Both Dumbledore and the Minister looked surprised at that, and while the Minster seemed more nervous, Dumbledore is more thoughtful.

"Yes," he said, smiling slightly. "Cornelius, why don't you try and find the old evidence that convicted Sirius? I'm sure Madam Bones would be more than willing."

"I - er-" the Minister looked rather flustered. "I suppose - is there a Floo I can borrow?"

"This way," Madam Pomfrey told him, leading him off and taking a break from shoving chocolate down Hermione's throat.

"Well now," said Dumbledore once he was gone. "This is quite the twist."

"You believe me?"

"Oh, certainly. I doubt Minster Fudge does, however." Fudge? Gabriel is never going to be able to eat fudge again after this. The man is a disgrace to the name.

"So what do you think will happen to Sirius?" Gabriel asked. It's genuine curiosity, and not the need to pretend to be thirteen, that leads him to ask.

"Ah! Mister Potter. I have an excellent memory, and while Cornelius is Flooing Madam Bones I think he'll get an unwelcome surprise when he discovers that there are no trial records."

Gabriel took a minute to realize what Dumbledore meant. "_He never got a trial?"_

"Plenty of people were sent straight to Azkaban." Dumbledore, at least, looks slightly remorseful. "I must confess, though, I never imagined that your parents would use Peter as their secret keeper."

Gabriel just shrugged. A shout suddenly came from the room Fudge is flooing in, and a moment later Madam Pomfrey comes back out. "He's gone through to the ministry," she told Dumbledore. "Something about a fault in the records."

Dumbledore smiled slightly. "Then I shall leave you to your patients, Poppy." He got up. "Might I have a private word with these two first, though?"

Madam Pomfrey, though she looked rather put out at not being able to force-feed Gabriel any chocolate, nodded and retreated to her office.

"Miss Granger." Dumbledore said pleasantly. "While Minister Fudge can be convinced, he has convinced himself that the Sirius Black case will make or break his career, and he will not think that declaring him innocent will do him any favors."

Hermione looked puzzled, but was listening intently. Gabriel swung his legs over the side of the bed to get closer.

"What we need," said Dumbledore, "is more _time."_

Hermione's mouth made a little O of surprise, but strangely enough she seems to understand.

"Now pay attention," Dumbledore continued. "Sirius is locked in Professor Flitwick's office on the seventh floor. Thirteenth window from the right of the West Tower. If all goes well, you will be able to save more than one innocent life tonight. But remember this, both of you; _you must not be seen._ Miss Granger, you know the law - you know what is at stake."

Hermione nodded quickly. Gabriel looked between the two of them, wondering whether he was missing a piece of the puzzle, or if he'd even started putting the puzzle together yet.

"I am going to lock you in," said Dumbledore, holding up a tiny key. He consulted his watch. "It is five minutes to midnight. Three turns ought to do it, Miss Granger."

Dumbledore swept away and closed the door. Hermione dug something out from under the collar of her robes.

"Harry, come here, quickly!"

"What the hell is that?"

Hermione threw the chain over his neck as well. There was a small, golden contraption hanging as a pendant from it which held a tiny hourglass full of sand.

"What-"

"Not now!" Hermione spun the contraption around one, two, three times and then they were at the center of one of the _wrong _energy storms that Gabriel had so often sensed. Things were blurring past them and Gabriel gasped as they landed in the Entrance hall, gold light spilling through the windows. Hermione dragged him into a storage closet just as two people entered the hall.

As Gabriel and Hermione sat in the closet, Gabriel tried to recover from what had to be the most uncomfortable time travel he'd ever done. Even that man with the box had done better than that. _He_ could have done better than that, even if it did exhaust his Grace.

"Hermione what the hell is that thing."

"It's a time-turner," Hermione explained. "I've been using it since the start of the year-"

"You _what?" _No wonder he'd been bothered by them all year. "Hermione, do you have any idea-"

"Sssh!" she hissed, and in the sudden silence Gabriel heard what was unmistakably Hermione and Ron arguing about Hagrid's.

"Yes, that's us..." Hermione whispered, her ear to the door. "And there's you offering the cloak..."

Light, slow footsteps came past the closet.

"We've gone down to Hagrid's..."

Hermione looked at Gabriel. "You're taking time travel very well."

"I already knew people could time travel. What I didn't know was that you thought it would be a good idea to do so for your _classes."_

"Harry..."

"What are we doing here?" Gabriel cut her off. Time travel. So she could take all the classes offered. Really.

"Dumbledore told us where Sirius was," Hermione whispered, "So we must be supposed to rescue him, since Fudge won't declare him innocent...but he said something about two innocent lives."

Hermione suddenly gasped and clutched Gabriel's arm. "Harry! Buckbeak!"

"The Hippogriff?"

"We can save him! We can use him and fly up to the window where Sirius is!"

"I thought the point of this was to _not be seen?"_

Hermione looked conflicted. "But - that had to be what he meant-"

"Hermione, I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm saying we'll need a d-" Gabriel almost slipped and said 'dad' again. "-damn miracle."

"Harry! Don't swear!"

Gabriel put his ear to the door of the closet.

"Sounds like we're gone...we'll need to go straight into the Forest to avoid being seen.."

"Around by the greenhouses," Hermione decided. "We'll have to get near Hagrid's, but we'll have to be very careful...we might see us..."

Gabriel opens the door and steps back out into the hall, Hermione following. Looking back as she closed the door, Gabriel felt a smile tugging at his mouth.

"Why are you grinning?"

"We've just come out of the closet."

It took a minute for Hermione to understand and smack Gabriel's shoulder.

"That's not funny."

"Let's go, we're running out of time."

* * *

The Forest is dim in the light of the setting sun and Gabriel and Hermione creep closer to the hut, where the door closed with a thump behind four invisible entities.

"Where's Buckbeak?" Hermione whispered.

"In the yard, I saw him earlier - but we can't yet."

"What?" Hermione stared incredulously at Gabriel. "Why?"

"If he's gone before the appeal or whatever can start, who d'you think they'll blame?"

He can see the moment Hermione understands. "They'll think Hagrid let him go," she breathes. "But that's going to give us about sixty seconds!"

"We'll have to make it."

There was a group of people making their way down to Hagrid's hut, the same group of people Gabriel had seen earlier. Gabriel watched as their past selves pulled on the cloak and vanished, and then as the group of older men [including the pinstriped Fudge] entered the cabin.

Gabriel hurried out of the forest and up to the tethered creature. It watched him with sharp amber eyes, and Gabriel slowed down slightly as he got closer. Would just walking slowly.

"You've got to bow to it!" Hermione hissed at him. Oh hell no. He was not bowing to this weird horse eagle thing.

But it was eyeing him ominously...and Gabriel really didn't feel like getting mauled...so...

He managed a sort of head bow. It didn't seem to work.

"Come on, what is this going to take?"

"Be polite to him!" Hermione whisper-yelled. "And hurry up!"

Finally, though, it bowed back. Gabriel took that as permission and hurriedly unlocked the collar, pulling the stubborn Hippogriff away into the forest just in time.

They had gone deep enough to not be seen, but were still close enough to hear the faint sound of voices stop. Then-

"Where is the beast?" asked a reedy voice. "Where has it gone?"

"It was tied here, I saw it!" said someone furiously.

"How extraordinary," said Dumbledore, sounding slightly amused.

There was a swish and a thud - whoever the executioner was, he had swung the axe into what sounded like the fence.

Hagrid started howling in delight, and the Hippogriff started straining at the lead to try and go back and it took most of Gabriel's considerable strength to keep him still.

"Someone untied him!" The same angry voice was snarling. "We have to search the forest-"

"Macnair, if someone really has taken the hippogriff, do you think they will have gone on foot?" Dumbledore still sounded amused. "Search the skies, if you will...Hagrid, I could do with a cup of tea."

"O - o' course, professor."

The door closed again.

"We'll have to wait until Sirius gets into the castle," Hermione said into the silence. "We'll have to hide in here...he won't be there for another couple of hours..."

"We've got to move towards the willow, then, if we want to know what's going on."

Hermione worried her lip in between her teeth. "Alright," she decided. "But we'll have to be-"

"Careful, I know. We can't be seen." _This isn't the first time I've time-traveled, you know._

The Hippogriff trailed behind them as they navigated through the forest, drawing closer to the willow as the sun set completely. Gabriel, as he looked through the branches, winced as he saw Michael get knocked back by the branch.

There were the shouts, Animagus Sirius, and then the tree froze and their past selves descended into the tunnel.

"How long do we have to wait?" Gabriel whispered.

"A few hours, at least," Hermione muttered back. "We only went back three hours, and it's been about thirty minutes at least."

The wait was incredibly boring. The only thing that happened was Hagrid wandering by halfway through, going towards the castle and obviously drunk.

Then, someone - a lot of someones - came out from under the willow.

Gabriel seized Hermione's arm. "Hermione, we need to move."

"What?"

"Lupin is going to be coming right towards us in about a minute, move!"

Hermione did move, and they both tugged the Hippogriff as they navigated the undergrowth of the forest and ended up somewhere around the shore of the black lake, where it was thickly growing with trees and nearly impossible to see.

People were walking nearby, though, and soon Gabriel felt the typical cold that announced the dementors. They seemed to be ignoring him and Hermione, for whatever reason - maybe the time travel, maybe they were too far away. Whatever the case, all of them were descending on the small group on the other side of the shore.

Gabriel frowned as something occurred to him. He'd seen a silver shape right before he blacked out...had that been a Patronus? Someone must have cast it. But who? Scanning the shoreline and the lawn up to the school, there was no one in sight, and already his past self appeared to be on the ground.

Then it hit Gabriel.

Who was the nearest person who could actually cast the Patronus charm?

Gabriel was standing up and shoving his was through the bushes before Hermione could do anything.

"Harry, wait-"

"Expecto patronum!"

Something silver-bright burst out of the end of his wand and swooped at the dementors, who scattered before it. The Patronus [which was _definitely _winged] circled over the group, as if making sure all the dementors were gone, before swooping back over to Gabriel. And that was when he recognized it.

"Of course."

It was a magpie.

It dissipated soon after it got rid of the dementors, and Gabriel ducked back into the bushes as someone new came onto the scene.

Hermione looked a bit surprised. "That was you?" Obviously she would have seen it before - only Sirius and Gabriel had collapsed.

"Yeah. Apparently."

Hermione glanced back to where their past selves were sitting. "There's Snape - he must have woken up, he was the one who took us up to the school."

"So now we wait another half hour and go get Sirius?"

"I guess." Hermione tugged the Hippogriff away from the shore. "No, Buckbeak, you can't go that way!"

Eventually it was deemed late enough to risk flying up to the tower. The Hippogriff was convinced to let them on, and while Hermione seemed mildly terrified, Gabriel was just annoyed that he had to rely on it to be able to fly.

"No, you're going south - to the right a bit!" Hermione shouted directions over the wind from her seat behind Gabriel while he did his best to steer the Hippogriff towards where Sirius was locked up. Eventually, they were flying past the west tower, and Hermione was hurriedly counting windows.

"There!"

Luckily, they were unlocked. Sirius jumped up from a chair inside as the window clicked open.

"What-" He seemed lost for words.

"No time, get on." Gabriel inwardly cursed as he realized he just lost the perfect opportunity to quote Mean Girls.

Bewildered, Sirius managed to balance on the window ledge and haul himself onto the Hippogriff behind Hermione. The Hippogriff took off again, and when they finally landed it was in the courtyard below. Hermione slid off eagerly, feet hitting the stone as Gabriel swung himself off.

Sirius was staring at them in astonishment. "How can I-"

"Go, you idiot, they're going to realize you're gone any minute." Gabriel had to tilt his head back to look at him because of the added height from sitting on the Hippogriff.

"Thank you," Sirius said hoarsely, and with a loud flap the Hippogriff took off again, soaring away until it was too far away to see.

Hermione tugged on Gabriel's arm. "We've got to go back inside, it's nearly midnight!"

The hallways were dark and empty - even Filch didn't seem to be out and about. Peeves swooped by them at one point, but Gabriel put a single finger to his mouth and the poltergeist went completely silent.

It didn't matter that Hermione noticed - she and Michael were going to have questions anyway.

Dumbledore was standing outside of the hospital wing doors when they arrived.

"Ah," he said cheerfully. "I assume you've managed it?"

"Yes," Hermione panted, since they had run most of the way to make it in time. "Yes, we saved both of them."

"Wonderful." Dumbledore opened the door wide enough for them both to get in. "Now, I think you have just left, so it should be safe to go in. Goodnight, Miss Granger, Mister Potter."

Michael was sitting up when they walked in. "What the hell?" ne asked blankly. "You were over there just a second ago!"

"You explain," Gabriel said quickly to Hermione.

* * *

Snape, of course, was furious that Sirius had escaped, and he showed it by being even more unbearable than usual. But with the exam season over, and classes easier than they had been all year, no one could be that bothered by it.

Hermoine had explained the time-turner to Michael and Ron [ "How come you didn't tell us about this? We're your friends!" "I had to swear I wouldn't, Ron, or else I wouldn't have been given it!"] and what they had done with it, setting Sirius and the Hippogriff free. They were both suitably impressed, and disappointed that they hadn't been able to come as well.

There was, however, still one more hurdle to get over.

The three of them had cornered Gabriel in an abandoned classroom the day afterward.

"What's this for?" Gabriel asked as Hermione shut the door behind him.

"About yesterday," Michael said determinedly. "Harry, I really think you owe us an explanation."

Gabriel looked at Ron, who looked to be as stubborn as possible, and Hermione, who was magically locking the door. "Is that really necessary?"

"We're going to get answers," was all she said as she turned to face Gabriel. "Come on, Harry, we're your friends!"

"Yeah, I know you are." Gabriel sighed. "Okay, before I say anything, I'm going to need all of you to swear that not a word of this leaves this room."

The three of them looked at each other, curious and slightly wary.

"Alright." Michael said first. "I can do that."

"Swear it."

"I...swear I won't tell anyone about what you tell us in here."

Gabriel looked expectantly at Hermione and Ron.

"Is this really necessary?" Ron asked.

"The door's over there, if you'd like to leave."

Ron was obviously torn between doing that and satisfying his curiosity. "...I swear I won't say anything about what you tell us."

Hermione echoed him. "I swear I won't say anything about what you tell us."

Gabriel sat down on top of a dusty desk. "...It's a really long story."

"We've got time." Hermione pulled a chair over and cleaned it off before sitting down as well.

"Well..." Gabriel considered how he could go about this. "I guess it really started Halloween, 1981."

* * *

There was absolute silence as Gabriel finished talking.

Ron's mouth had dropped open at some point during the explanation, and Michael was staring at Gabriel in what might have been outright disbelief. Hermione had her fingers on her forehead and looked like she was getting a migraine.

"Merlin's _underpants._"

"Ron!"

"_Angels?"_

Well, Gabriel really hadn't been expecting a better reaction.

"You're serious," Michael said. "Totally serious."

"Yeah."

"This is insane!" Ron said, shaking his head.

"More insane than finding out your rat is an Animagus in hiding?" Gabriel asked, raising on eyebrow.

Ron grimaced. "Don't remind me."

"But..." Hermione looked lost. "Angels don't exist."

"That's not true. I'm sitting right here."

"Harry, come on!"

"Hermione, look at what happened!" Gabriel spread his arms. "You know what you saw me do, that's why you cornered me in here. What other explanation do you have?"

"But if you're seriously...an _angel..._then why come to Hogwarts?" Michael asked. "Shouldn't you have, I dunno, some sort of special power?"

"Technically, I do."

"Technically?" Hermione questioned.

"I told you that the whole 'ending up as Harry Potter' thing was an _accident. _Whatever that accident did, I'm having a bit of trouble getting back to full power." Gabriel gestured at himself. "Thus, here I am."

Hermione still looked doubtful. "But aren't angels supposed to have wings?"

"I do have wings. You just can't see them. Your senses literally can't comprehend them."

"This is crazy," Ron muttered again.

"What about that thing you had last night?" Hermione interrupted. "The sword thing you used."

The angel blade slid out of Gabriel's sleeve and into his hand. "You mean this?"

Michael jumped slightly as it appeared. Hermione, however, eyed it critically. "What is it?"

"It's an angel blade. Every angel has one."

"Where did it come from?"

Gabriel grinned and put a finger over his lips again. "Secret."

"Harry...er-" Hermione paused in what was obviously about to be a reprimand. "Should we call you something else?"

"I've been called Harry for the past thirteen years. It's fine."

"Do you have another name?" Michael asked, seemingly getting on board with the whole 'angel' thing.

"Yeah."

Hermione looked curious now. "What is it? I mean, from what I know of Christianity there are hundreds of angels, so you could be any one of them."

"Usually I go by Gabriel."

Hermione stared. "Gabriel? But that would mean you're-"

"An archangel? Yes, it would."

Michael and Ron looked lost - obviously, since both of them were wizard raised, they had no idea of the meaning of the word. "What's an archangel?"

Hermione was still staring at Gabriel. "They're the most powerful angels," she explained. "There are seven, I think-"

"Seven? Where'd you hear that?" Gabriel snorted. "There are three - counting me, of course."

Now all three of them were staring at him. "Who are the other two?" Ron asked.

"Michael and Raphael."

"So..." Hermione leaned forward, obviously enjoying her new source of knowledge. "They're your brothers?"

"Yeah."

"Are you older?"

"Out of the archangels, no. I'm the youngest."

"And where are your brothers, then?" Ron asked. "Do they know what happened to you?"

Gabriel gave Ron an _are you kidding _look. "Well, considering one of them is trapped and the other's dead, no, I don't think they do."

Hermione's mouth dropped open. Michael elbowed Ron and gave him a _now look what you've done _glare.

"Oh." To Ron's credit, he did look rather sheepish. "Sorry."

"Archangels can die?" Hermione clapped her hands over her mouth. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have-"

"It's fine." Gabriel leaned back and propped his feet up on a nearby chair. "Not like I've seen either of them in the last few millenia. And yes, we can."

The three of them looked unsure how to react to the word _millenia_, so Gabriel decided to change the topic.

"So," he said, sitting upright again. "How'd you like to see the place I found in first year?"

* * *

Hermione was absolutely thrilled with Muriel's room, and even more so once she was told that Ravenclaw had actually been one of Gabriel's siblings. ["So does that mean technically you could access her vault?"] and had to be practically dragged from the room, just like Gabriel had predicted.

One thing Gabriel hadn't predicted was Lupin tracking him down on the last day of term.

"Harry?" Gabriel turned around and saw the teacher standing behind him, suitcase in hand and two new scars on his face parallel to the old ones.

"I just thought," Lupin said, holding up the blank map, "that since I'm no longer a teacher I have no regrets in giving this back to you." He held it out to Gabriel.

"Thanks." Gabriel tucked it into his robes.

"I'm not going to ask about last night," Lupin said after a moment. "And I'm also not going to ask why you haven't got a name on the Map. I'm curious, I assure you, but - I understand the right to keep your secrets."

"Alright." Gabriel was honestly surprised that Lupin wasn't asking any questions. "Sorry about last night, by the way, professor."

"It's fine. I don't blame you in the slightest."

"Why are you leaving?" Gabriel nodded towards the suitcase. "You know everyone thinks that you're the best defense professor."

"Yes, well." A small smile tugged at the corner of Lupin's mouth. "Snape didn't take Sirius's escape well, of course. Dumbledore managed to assure Fudge that I didn't mean any harm, but Snape let slip at breakfast this morning my...condition."

What an utter asshole Snape was. "That sucks."

Lupin smiled a little wider. "It does, I suppose, but I'll be fine. Goodbye, Harry."

"Goodbye."

* * *

Hermione, though she seemed to have endless questions, was oddly wary about asking them.

"I'm not going to smite you for asking too many questions," Gabriel told her exasperatedly on the train ride home.

"I didn't think you would, but-" Hermione paused. "Who else knows?"

"About me being Gabriel, you mean?"

"Yeah. What about your guardian?"

That was what this is about? "Trust me," said Gabriel, rolling his eyes. "He knows."

"You told him before you told us?" Michael looked a little insulted. "But I thought you just moved in with him over the summer."

"On paper, sure, he's my guardian. In reality? Not so much."

"...What's that supposed to mean? Did he just leave you on your own?"

Gabriel looked away from the window and back at Michael. "Balthazar's actually my little brother."

"You found one of them?"

"Technically, he ran into me and I took advantage of the situation."

"So - wait - you ran into one of your brothers and made him fake being your guardian? Why?" Hermione asked.

"I couldn't stand the people I was dumped with before."

"Er-"

* * *

King's Cross was as noisy as usual. Also per usual, Hermione made him promise to write over the summer and dashed off to join her parents.

And again, as usual, Gabriel was left to find his own way home.

"I _cannot wait _for my wings to start working again."

It took a lot of creative storytelling and charm to find a map of bus routes that could get him out to the place Balthazar had gotten, and then another hour of traveling to actually get there. Balthazar was waiting when Gabriel kicked the door open and dragged in his things.

"Hello." Balthazar was lying on the sofa with a glass in one hand.

"You lazy shit, you could have given me a ride here."

"You made it here, didn't you?"

Gabriel glared halfheartedly and let his trunk thump onto the floor. "What are you drinking?"

"I have no idea."

"Seriously?" Gabriel picked up the bottle. "Is this - Balthazar, you're drinking this rot?"

"It's wine. It's always good." Balthazar took a careful sip from his glass. The bottle was already half empty.

"It tastes horrible."

"More for me, then."

Gabriel rolled his eyes and tossed the bottle at his brother, who caught it easily. "Where've you been all year?"

"About. Why do you care?"

"You felt it when Raphael bit the dust, right?"

Balthazar sat up slowly. "Yes."

"What happened?"

"You expect me to know?"

"Yeah, I do. Because there's no way you would have just sat here when something like that happened."

"...As far as I know, Castiel succeeded in opening Purgatory."

"He _what?"_

"That's not all." Balthazar looked unusually grim. "Not all of it went back in."

Gabriel felt something twist inside him. "Tell me he didn't let them out."

"He did." Balthazar took another gulp of wine. "Why d'you think I'm avoiding that Earth? I'm not stupid enough to go somewhere the Leviathans are running about."

"Jesus _Christ."_

"Are you going to do anything?"

"The way I am now? They'd kill me in a second."

Balthazar was silent for a moment. Then-

"I suppose I never liked that Earth anyway."

* * *

**Aaaaaaand there we go!**

**I added the bit on the end so we can still keep up with the events in the supernaturalverse. Lucky thing Balthazar's around, or Gabriel would have no idea what was going on.**

**Hope you're all ready for Goblet of Fire!**

**Read and review.**


	28. The Triwizard Tournament

**Glad you all liked the last chapter! And now...we move forward...to THE GOBLET OF FIRE.**

**Minor Spoiler: There's a twist coming up! All I'm gonna say is it involves family from ****_quite _****a while ago, and not in this story...**

**I was going through and updating some chapters, apologies for the mishaps! I went back through and replaced any mistakes with the right chapters.**

**Anyway, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter**

* * *

Gabriel's summer was fairly boring, even having spent it with Balthazar.

He'd sent off a letter from Diagon Alley in July, after discovering the address of the Ministry of Magic, and written it to 'whoever runs the justice department around there', inquiring whether the Minster seriously intended to pretend that he'd never discovered that Sirius Black had never been given a trial.

This was not out of any sort of presumed bond with Sirius, but rather, Gabriel hadn't done anything remotely Trickster-like in ages and was incredibly bored.

The hastily-written letter he got back several weeks later from someone named Madam Bones, plus the included copy of the newspaper announcing the judicial mistake, made it all worth it.

[Unfortunately, Fudge had managed to retain his position as Minister by blaming the mishap on his predecessor].

Sirius sent a letter as well in late August, letting Gabriel know that he'd been cleared of all charges once they had bothered to use some Veritaserum on him. Gabriel had no idea what Veritaserum was, but he did speak Latin, which was enough to figure out it's general use.

There was also an offer to come visit, which Gabriel declined. Sirius was sure to have questions, and he didn't intend to let anyone else know about the whole angel thing.

Especially not someone he'd met less than a year ago.

* * *

There were still two weeks left in summer break when the invitation arrived.

The owl which carried it had arrived bedraggled and supported by two others, one of which carried a Hogwarts letter and the other one from Michael [who was forwarding one from Hermione].

The invitation was from Ron, and it was to some sort of event called the Quidditch World Cup. He'd included a PS ['I don't know if you like that kind of stuff but you're welcome to come - Dad's got extra tickets from work, Hermione will be there too'] and since Michael was apparently going as well, Gabriel was seriously wondering whether to stifle his dislike of Quidditch and accept.

"What's that?"

"It's none of your business Balthazar."

"Why are there owls on the table."

"How many times do I have to explain that it's how wizards send letters?"

Gabriel ended up declining. Seeing Michael and Hermione wasn't enough to make up for sitting through what could potentially be a twenty-four-hour match, and the letter he wrote back said exactly that.

Besides, he'd see them when school started anyway.

* * *

"_Who _was at the world cup?"

"Death Eaters," Hermione repeated. She and Gabriel were sitting opposite each other in a compartment on the Hogwarts express, which also held Michael, Ron, and Draco [who had shown up again].

"Why on Earth were they at the world cup?" Gabriel asked incredulously, holding the newspaper Hermione had handed him. The front page featured a picture of an eerie green skull hanging over what must have been the stadium, a snake winding under and through it. Gabriel recognized it from the newspapers about Death Eaters he'd shifted through in first year.

"I've no idea," Hermione shrugged.

"Are you alright?"

"We're fine," Michael said. "Good thing you didn't come, huh?"

"No, I should've. If I'd known this was going to happen-"

"It's fine." Ron said. "We weren't hurt - and anyway they scarpered as soon as the mark went up."

Gabriel frowned. "They ran when their own mark went up? That doesn't make sense."

"I suppose not." Hermione shrugged again. "But we've got no way of knowing what happened. And do you know what else? They blamed a house-elf!"

"They blamed a what?"

"Crouch's house-elf," Michael explained. "They found her with a wand a couple feet away. I mean, obviously she didn't put it up, but Crouch still sacked her."

"Who's Crouch?"

"Some Ministry official."

"He works for the DMLE," Ron elaborated. "Department of Magical Law Enforcement," he added when everyone but Draco and Michael looked at him blankly.

Gabriel snorted as he tossed the newspaper down. "And they didn't have anyone there in case something went wrong?"

Ron frowned. "You're saying they should have expected it?"

"I'm saying there were, what, a thousand wizards in the same place and there were no authority figures to do crowd control? Muggles know better than that."

"He has a point," Hermione said, glancing over at Draco. "What do you think?"

It took Malfoy a minute to realize he was being addressed. "Wh - about the DMLE already being there?"

"Yeah," Michael said. "It would've helped a lot."

Draco seemed uncomfortable. "I suppose it would have."

Ron scowled. "I bet you were glad they weren't, though."

"Ron-"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Draco snapped.

"It means your dad-"

"Enough!" Gabriel put a hand over Ron's mouth and held up the other towards Draco. "I'm not going to sit here and listen to you two argue. Boo hoo, your fathers don't get along, get over it."

There was a moment of very tense silence as Draco and Ron glared at each other. Then, abruptly, Draco looked away.

Gabriel took his hand off Ron's mouth.

"So what do you think of this year's event?" Draco asked out of the blue, most likely trying to change the topic.

Hermione looked nonplussed. "What event?"

"You mean you don't know?" Draco looked genuinely surprised.

"What is going on this year?" Ron asked irritably. "Charlie and Bill wouldn't tell anyone!"

"It's the Triwizard Tournament!"

"The what now?" Gabriel asked in confusion.

"The triwizard tournament," Draco repeated, looking around. Michael and Ron traded _what is he talking about _looks. Even Hermione looked curious. "Don't tell me none of you have ever heard of it!"

"Alright, we won't." Gabriel leaned forward. "What is it?"

Draco looked like he was sorely tempted to roll his eyes. "Well, it's a tournament, obviously - Hogwarts is hosting this year, and two other schools will be visiting. Each school submits a champion, and then there are a couple tasks that the champions compete in to see who wins the tournament - a cash prize and a trophy."

"Wow." Ron looked impressed.

"What other schools?" Hermione asked. "I was never sure how many there were-"

"There are eleven. Beauxbatons - that's the French school - are probably coming, since they're so close, and I think Father said that the third school was going to be Durmstrang." Draco seemed to be enjoying his temporary status as being the most knowledgeable about something.

"Isn't that a northern school?" Michael looked like he was trying to remember something he'd learned a long time ago. "Up in the scandanavian countries or something."

"I've no idea. Father wanted to send me there originally, but I ended up coming here, obviously." Draco cleared his throat. "Do you think you'd enter?"

"Maybe," said Ron. "Sounds pretty good - cash prize and all."

"I don't know." Hermione petted Crookshanks absentmindedly. "Maybe. It would depend what these tasks were, of course."

Michael glanced over at Gabriel. "What do you think?"

"Doesn't sound very interesting." Draco looked incredulous at that.

"Not interesting?" Draco said disbelievingly. Gabriel shrugged.

"I just don't think I'd enter myself." He paused. "Is there a rule that you have to enter yourself?"

"I've got no idea. Probably not."

"Excellent."

* * *

There seemed to be more empty seats than usual at the staff table that year. From his place at the Ravenclaw table, Gabriel saw that Hagrid was missing [most likely leading the first years across the lake, and in this weather at that] and McGonagall was also gone - again, the first years.

Professor Lupin was nowhere to be seen, since he'd resigned last year, so there had to be a new teacher. But there were no new faces at the table, so either something had gone wrong or they were very late.

Lightning flashed across the roof of the hall, followed almost immediately by a clap of thunder that sounded like someone was throwing a huge temper tantrum upstairs and directly over Hogwarts. The doors at the end of the hall opened to receive a line of bedraggled first-years, who all looked completely soaked. One of them was wearing Hagrid's enormous coat, and looked to be the smallest, though this might have been the contradictory size of the coat.

The Sorting Hat broke into its new song, which Gabriel completely ignored in favor of frowning up at the sky. That was two years in a row that horrible weather had greeted them on the first day back. This year it was worse than ever. And while Gabriel didn't like to fiddle with fortune-telling, he couldn't help but feel that it was a little ominous.

Once everyone had found a House and sat down, Dumbledore smiled widely.

"I have only two words to say to you," he announced. "Tuck in."

Food appeared on the plates in front of them, the hall suddenly filling with the smell of it. Michael watched curiously as Gabriel served himself.

"Do you really need it?" Ne asked quietly among the chatter surrounding them. Gabriel shook his head.

"I didn't think it would be good to just eat nothing at meals, though, and I'm not letting everyone in on it."

"Makes sense."

Dinner disappeared quickly, and was replaced almost instantly with dessert. When they too vanished [unfortunately] Dumbledore got to his feet. Any talk immediately ceased, everyone looking up towards the staff table.

"So! Now that we are all fed and watered, I have a few start-of-term announcements to give out!" Dumbledore was smiling genially, which seemed to be his default expression.

"Mr. Filch, the caretaker, has asked me to remind you that the list of forbidden objects has been extended this year to include Screaming Yo-Yos, Fanged Frisbees, and Ever-Bashing Boomerangs. The full list, which is made up of some four hundred and thirty-seven objects-" Gabriel immediately resolved to find that list, if only to see how there could be over four hundred objects on it. "-can be viewed in Mr. Filch's office, if anybody would like to check it." Where was the caretaker's office again?

"As ever, I would like to remind you that the forest on the grounds is out-of-bounds, as is the village of Hogsmeade to all below third year.

"It is also my painful duty to inform you that the Inter-House Quidditch Cup will not take place this year."

"What?!"

"Michael sit down!" Gabriel pulled Michael back into nir seat. Michael still looked outraged.

"They can't do that!" The majority of the students seemed to agree with Michael, muttering not entirely complimentary things about the decision.

Dumbledore continued over the sudden, outraged swell of noise. "This is due to an event that will be starting in October, and continuing throughout the school year, taking up much of the teacher's time and energy - but I am sure you all will enjoy it immensely. I have great pleasure in announcing that this year, Hogwarts-"

At that exact moment, there was a deafening clap of thunder, and the doors to the hall swung open with a bang.

There was a man silhouetted in the doorway, wearing a long coat and leaning on a staff. As lightning flashed across the ceiling, he stepped forward into the hall, walking with purpose towards the staff table, a dull _clunk _sounding with every other step.

When he reached Dumbledore, he and the headmaster spoke quietly for a moment before the man took the only empty seat at the table.

"Our new Defense professor," Dumbledore said, the words echoing in the absolute silence of the hall, "Professor Moody." Only he and Hagrid clapped, and even then the scant applause died out quickly.

"Moody?" Michael whispered. "As in, Mad-Eye Moody?"

Well, that nickname was obvious enough. Moody had a fake eye, large and electric blue, and it moved around completely independent of his real one.

"As I was saying," Dumbledore continued, "This year, Hogwarts has the honor of hosting the Triwizard Tournament."

"You're joking!" Someone said loudly from the Gryffindor table. There was a smattering of laughter.

"I am not," Dumbledore said. "Though I did hear an excellent one over the summer about a troll, a hag, and a banshee all walking into a bar...but perhaps now is not the time," he said hurriedly as McGonagall glared at the headmaster from her seat next to him. "Where was I...oh yes, the Triwizard Tournament. Some of you may not know what this entails, so I hope those of you who do will forgive me for a short explanation.

"The Triwizard Tournament was first established some seven hundred years ago as a friendly competition between the three largest European schools; Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang. Each school had a champion selected to represent them, and the three champions competed in three tasks. The schools took it in turns to host, and for many years it was agreed that it was an excellent way of establishing ties between young witches and wizards of different countries - that is, until the death toll mounted so high that the tournament was discontinued."

Surprisingly, very few people seemed put off by the idea of a large death toll.

Dumbledore cleared his throat and the hall silenced itself again. "There have been several attempts to restart it over the years, most of which have been unsuccessful. However, our own Department of Magical Games and Sports have decided that the time is ripe for another attempt. We have worked hard over the summer to ensure that this time, no champion will be facing down mortal danger.

"The Heads and students of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving in October, and the selections of the three champions will take place on Halloween. An impartial judge will decide which students are worthy to compete for the Triwizard cup, the glory of their school, and a thousand Galleons personal prize money."

"A thousand Galleons?" Michael looked awestruck. "That's ridiculous!"

Dumbledore raised his hands to quiet the sudden spate of whispering. "Though I know all of you are eager to bring Hogwarts the Triwizard cup," he said, "The Heads of the competing schools, as well as the Ministry of Magic, have agreed to pose an age limit on those contending. That is to say, only those who are of age - seventeen years or older - may compete.

"This-" Dumbledore had to raise his voice to speak over the sudden swell of outraged muttering, "-Is something we feel is necessary, given that despite our precautions the tasks will still be difficult and rather dangerous. I find it highly unlikely that any student under sixth year will have the knowledge needed to succeed. I will personally be ensuring that no underage students will be able to hoodwink our impartial judge into making them champion."

Dumbledore's eyes flashed over the audience. "I therefore beg you not to waste your time submitting yourself if you are under seventeen."

"The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving in October and remaining with us for the greater part of the year. I know you will all extend every courtesy to our guests while they are here, and give your whole-hearted support to whoever is selected as Hogwarts champion. Now! It is late, and I expect you are all ready for bed. To your dorms! Chop chop!"

There was a great scraping of chairs and an explosion of talk, as everyone stood up and began chatting with their neighbors at once.

"An age limit," Michael snorted. "Of course."

"You weren't seriously going to try and compete, were you?" Gabriel shot nir a look. "Death toll?"

"I heard Dumbledore too, Harry." Michael replied. "I just thought it would be cool - and a thousand Galleons, come on."

"What do you need that much money for?"

The Ravenclaws as a group chattered excitedly as they were led up to the dorms, and even when everyone had gone up to the dorms they were still talking. Anthony and whoever had the bed next to him were having a hushed conversation about whether they'd be able to get over the age limit.

"The judge can't be that hard to fool-"

"Go to sleep, you idiots." Gabriel tossed the nearest pillow not underneath his head at them.

Tournament or no, he was getting some sleep because damnit his Grace still hadn't changed at all, and Gabriel was going to figure out the answer to that problem whatever it took.

* * *

**I'm sorry about how short this chapter is! I wanted to write more but I couldn't add anything without making it overinflated, and that really was the best place to end it.**

**Read and review!**


	29. The Goblet of Fire

**Oh, you guys are super excited for the tournament! I'm going to go over some reviews here so everyone can see the answers.**

_Guest: At first I thought 'you mean Charliex right? Family we haven't seen for... OH MY GOD DO YOU MEAN MICHAEL AND LUCIFER_  
_WHAT IF IT'S THEM. _  
_OR CASTIEL. _  
_OR ANYONE REALLY. _  
_OH MY GOD YES._

**Noooooot quite. The family I'M talking about has never actually appeared in the show...and as for Supernatural canon, it's unclear if they actually exist. But for the purposes of this story, I'm assuming they do.**

_ 23dae5dal03ist :And so it begins. Can 'Moody' actually see anything wrong with Gabriel with the magic eye? Is Gabe's grace being affected by the horcrux? If there was one actually made, of course._

**That magic eye is powerful, but it can't see souls. So no. And his Grace isn't being affected by the Horcrux; like Harry's soul it got sort of pushed out way back before first year. I can't tell you how many times I get this question, so READ THIS CAREFULLY: THE HARRY-HORCRUX DOESN'T EXIST ANYMORE. It hasn't for a long time.  
**

_Paxloria: I'm really curious about the Lake challenge. its not like the know enough to take Gabriels Grace or the ability to do so. Will they that his human friends instead or try for Balthazar or something?_

**Most likely Hermione or Michael; everyone knows he's good friends with them, after all. And since Krum gets Hermione, probably Michael.**

**Anyway, I hope this chappie lives up to your expectations!  
**

**PS: 300+ reviews?! You guys are awesome. Also, thank you to the Guest reviewer who finally told me who Terry Goodkind was.  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter.**

* * *

Gabriel woke up disconcerted.

He'd felt like he'd had a dream again. Once was weird enough, but twice meant something might actually be going on - that, or his Grace was getting worse and not better. The most frustrating thing was his complete inability to remember anything that had happened in them, if anything had. There was just the vague sense of being someplace odd.

And then he woke up.

It was maddening.

Classes were not as bad. Luckily, Gabriel had been able to give up Divination, or they might have been a lot worse. Arithmancy was rather easy - the only difficult part was the time-consuming calculations.

Moody, however, was difficult to categorize.

He was certainly a decent teacher - determined to teach them spells and the like. But he had an odd way of going about it.

"Curses!" He barked at the class once attendance was done. "You've got a good grounding in creatures, but you're behind - very behind - in dealing with curses."

Several people glanced curiously at each other, but most were paying attention to Moody.

"According to the Ministry, I'm suppose to teach you countercurses and leave it at that. I'm not supposed to show you illegal, Dark curses until you're in sixth year. You're not supposed to be old enough to deal with them until then. But Professor Dumbledore's got a higher opinion of you. He reckons you can cope, and I say the sooner you know what you're up against, the better prepared you'll be. How are you supposed to defend yourself against something you've never seen? You can't. You need to be alert. You need to be vigilant."

Moody turned around and scrawled _Unforgivable Curses _on the blackboard. "Who can tell me what an unforgivable curse is?"

Several people warily raised their hands. Moody pointed at a Hufflepuff on the other side of the room. "You. What are they?"

"They're the three worst curses, sir," the Hufflepuff answered. "You go straight to Azkaban if you use one."

"Exactly. Who thinks they know what the three curses are?" Moody looked around expectantly.

There were a few more hesitantly raised hands.

"You. Corner."

"Er...the Imperius curse."

"Yes, that's one." Moody plunked down a jar containing spiders on his desk. "Gave the Ministry a lot of trouble at one time...couldn't sort out who was fighting willingly and who was under someone else's control."

He dipped a hand into the jar and dumped one of the spiders onto the table.

"_Imperio."_

* * *

The demonstration, in Gabriel's mind, had been entirely unnecessary.

A lot of the class had been disturbed by the Cruciatus curse, and the Imperious was just creepy. The Killing curse was almost an insult - death was never meant to be something handled so lightly.

Moody seemed to have impressed most people, however, and again Gabriel wondered why these students were so calm. They'd seen a teacher use a death curse, and a torture curse, in front of them, and no one seemed to fully realize the implications of how easily those spells could be used on humans, and not just spiders.

Moody's lesson on curses, however, was the last thing on Gabriel's mind.

Hermione found him and Michael by the library on Monday [Michael had to do a Divination project] with a box full of brightly-colored badges which rattled around.

Gabriel raised his eyebrows at the badges. "What are those?" They all bore the same four letters: SPEW.

Michael picked one up curiously. "Spew?"

"S-P-E-W," Hermione corrected. "It stands for the Society for the Protection of Elvish Welfare."

"Never heard of it." Michael let the blue badge fall back into the box.

"Well, it's not a real organization yet," Hermione admitted. "I've only just started it."

"Seriously?" Michael asked in surprise. "What's got you so riled up about the house-elves?"

"Didn't you see the way Crouch treated his at the World Cup?" Hermione demanded. "We've got to do something!"

Gabriel joined the conversation. "And something would be...?"

"Freeing them!"

Michael nearly choked on nir pumpkin juice. "_Free _them?" ne asked incredulously.

"Yes." Hermione looked put out. "I'd have thought you'd agree!"

"Hermione, trying to get better conditions is one thing...but freeing them? House elves don't want to be freed!"

"They've been brainwashed," Hermione snapped. "They don't know any better! I've been researching it in the library, elf enslavement goes back ages!"

Gabriel was staring at Hermione with one eyebrow raised. "So you're going to force them into freedom?"

Hermione stared back. "It's not forcing them-"

"Do they want it?" Gabriel didn't think Hermione saw what she was doing.

"Of course they do! They just don't-"

"Hermione, have you even talked to any house elves? Ever?"

Hermione visibly faltered. "But - they're enslaved, Harry!"

"Hermione, you're going about this the wrong way. House elves work differently than humans, you can't treat them like you'd react to people."

"Harry!" This served only to make her more indignant. "You're saying you'd rather see them enslaved?"

"I'm saying you're going about it the wrong way! Forcing freedom on them isn't going to help anyone, least of all them!" She could at least have the decency to ask them about it.

"There are hundreds of house-elves working in the kitchens," Hermione said angrily. "Are you telling me you don't care about them?"

"Do you have proof that they're mistreated?" Gabriel asked, eyebrow still raised. "Anything at all that would show that they're unhappy? Even visited the kitchens at all?" He gave Hermione a look when she had no answer. "Do you know anything about hose elves? What if they turn out to be some sort of magicl creature that depends on work? I don't know how many times people have to say that they enjoy work for you to understand it."

Hermione had actually been rendered speechless. Gabriel shrugged in a _what can you do _sort of way and turned around, intending to find somewhere to take a break from school for a moment.

* * *

Their next Defense class, Moody announced his intention to put them under the Imperious curse to test their resistance to it. There was an underlying current of nervousness as Moody swept the desks to the side to create a clear space in the center of the room. Gabriel wondered if he was seriously allowed to use illegal curses on students - had Dumbledore given him permission or something?

It didn't seem like something the old headmaster would allow, but it wasn't Gabriel's business - he only kept an eye on Michael when ne went under, and all Michael ended up doing was trying to jump over one of the desks. Ne seemed very embarassed when ne stood up again, and Michael's cheeks were flaming when ne came back over to nir seat.

"I'm not doing that again," ne muttered as Moody barked "Potter! You're next!"

Gabriel stood up, and a single stride brought him to the center of the room. Moody raised his wand.

"_Imperio!"_

It was a very odd sensation, as though something very soft were being shoved insistently on his forehead. Something which contained a speaker of some sort which was talking to him faintly. Gabriel ignored it and gave Moody a _well? Go on _look.

Moody seemed impressed. "D'you see that?" He barked at the rest of the class. "Potter's resisting!" He looked back at Gabriel, and the shoving and the faint voice grew slightly more insistent. Gabriel continued ignoring it and stood perfectly still in the center of the classroom.

Moody took another five minutes to give up on ever getting through to Gabriel, and by that time class was nearly over. Moody dismissed them early and they all scattered, eagerly discussing the class.

"That's not really fair," Michael muttered. "It's just because of what you are."

"It's because I have better mental protection," Gabriel corrected. "Species has nothing to do with it."

* * *

There was a notice pinned up in the entrance hall before dinner that night, announcing that the foreign visitors would be arriving a week from then on the thirtieth. That left only one day for anyone to submit their name, Gabriel noticed, but everyone else was buzzing with the news.

"Lessons end half an hour early!" Michael read cheerfully. "I wonder how they're getting here...I don't think they'd take the train."

"I'm sure they've got their own methods," Gabriel said, frowning, since he was still too short to read the notice properly over the crowd. Not that his last vessel had been much taller, but still.

The sign going up caused a flurry of fresh interest in the tournament. People swapped ideas as to how the other two schools were going to arrive, who was going to be Hogwarts champion, what the students of the other two schools were like.

The school was changing a bit as well. The paintings were suddenly brighter and restored, the suits of armor suddenly polished and not at all squeaky. Even the teachers were affected by the mood, tenser as if trying to make sure that every single student made a good impression on the guests. The caretaker, Filch, was behaving so ferociously to anyone who made the slightest mess that Gabriel was a minute away from pulling another Trickster move.

And then, October thirtieth came.

When they all came down to breakfast it was to discover that the hall had been decorated. Large, sheer banners now decorated the walls, one for each House and emblazoned with the four crests. Behind the teacher's table an even larger banner showed the Hogwarts coat of arms around a large letter H.

There was a simultaneously pleasant and nervous air that day - even Gabriel, who spared barely any attention to the proceedings, felt it. Nobody paid much attention in their lessons, the idea of the upcoming arrival of the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students proving to be much more interesting. When the bell rang early everyone hurried to put their things away and rush back down to the entrance hall.

The four heads of Houses were ordering their students into neat rows and moving along the students, snapping for people to fix their hats or remove that ridiculous thing from your hair, Miss Patil.

"Follow me, please!" Flitwick called as loudly as he could. "First years in front, and no pushing!"

They all gathered in front of the castle after descending the tall set of stairs. That evening was cold and clear, and a pale moon was already hovering over the forest.

"Nearly six," Michael muttered, checking nir watch. "No ideas as to how they're going to get here?"

"No more than the last six time you asked," Gabriel muttered.

There were several moments of silence, and the other students shivered while Gabriel wondered if the foreign students were just planning a dramatic entrance to show off. Then Dumbledore called out.

"Aha! Unless I am much mistaken, the delegation from Beauxbatons approaches!"

Everyone started looking around, trying to spot what the headmaster had. Then someone else shouted "Look!"

Oh, very helpful.

But it was becoming readily apparent what they were looking at. Something was soaring closer in the sky, getting bigger with each passing second.

"It's a dragon!" shrieked one of the first years.

"Don't be stupid, it's a flying house!"

The second guess turned out to be closer. A gigantic, powder-blue carriage thudded to the ground, pulled by a team of horses easily the size of elephants, which all had even larger wings and fiery red eyes. It was a little disconcerting, seeing as the last time Gabriel had gone up against something with red eyes like that, it had been a Knight of Hell.

The doors of the carriage bore a coat of arms, two crossed wands emitting sparks, but there was no time to look closer as the door sprang open. A boy in pale blue robes jumped to the ground and fumbled with something at the bottom of the doorway before a set of steps sprang out. The woman who left the carriage next immediately explained the large scale.

She was just as tall as Hagrid, looming over the crowd, and was olive-skinned. Her robes were some sort of black, sheer material, and dragged slightly on the floor as she walked forward, the students parting in front of her.

Dumbledore began to clap, and everyone else soon followed. While the large woman had been striding forward, about a dozen boys and girls [all dressed in the same blue robes that nearly matched the carriage] had exited as well, and they were all standing around awkwardly and shivering. Their robes, obviously, were not meant to stand up to a Scottish evening in October. A few had wrapped scarves and shawls around themselves, but these were similarly useless.

"Madam Maxine," Dumbledore greeted the woman. "How nice to see you again. Welcome to Hogwarts."

"Dumbledore," Maxine replied. She had a very thick accent which contorted her words so that it sounded more like _Dumbly-dorr. "_I hope I find you well?" Her h's were nearly silent.

"In excellent form, thank you." Dumbledore was smiling graciously. "Would you and your students like to go inside and warm up, or would you like to wait for the Durmstrang students? They have not yet arrived."

"Warm up, I think," Maxine answered. "But the horses-"

"Our Care of Magical Creatures professor will be delighted to take care of them." Dumbledore said instantly. "I assure you, he is up to the job."

Maxine looked as though she rather doubted that Hagrid could handle them, but didn't protest further. "Please inform him - they drink only single-malt whiskey."

Single? Lightweights.

"Come," Maxine said imperiously to her students. They all followed obediently as she led them up the stairs to the entrance hall, the crowd parting again to let the students through.

Many people were now gazing up at the sky hopefully, probably wishing that Durmstrang would come soon, but Gabriel doubted they'd use the same method. Wizards seemed to like to show off - no doubt they would use some other crazy method to get to Hogwarts.

"Can you hear that?" Michael asked suddenly.

The crowd went quiet as the strange noise grew louder, trying to figure out what it was. It was vaguely reminiscent of water draining after someone had pulled the plug.

"The lake!"

There was something similar to a drain in the lake, water swirling around and falling. From their position at the base of the stairs, it was only too easy to see down to the lake.

Gabriel craned his neck up to see properly. There was something rising out of the whirlpool, something long and thin and followed by something much bigger.

It was a _ship._

The portholes were lit with a pale, misty light, making the ship look dark and ghostly as it rose out of the water and glided towards the bank. Movement began, and it became apparent what the movement was as people started disembarking and making their way up the lawn.

All the students looked large and hulking, but as they get closer Gabriel saw that it was just their robes, which were made out of thick fur. As the Durmstrang students passed, led by a man with a white goatee, a wave of muttering rippled over the crowd of Hogwarts students.

"Oh my God." Michael started and looked at Gabriel, as if realizing what he'd said. "Sorry."

"It's fine."

Most of the attention seemed fixed on a taller boy at the front, walking next to the man with the goatee. There were several girls wondering whether he'd autograph their hats in lipstick. Gabriel assumed the boy was some sort of celebrity.

The man with the goatee certainly seemed to pay him special attention as they all walked back into the school, the Durmstrang students at the front.

"You haven't got a quill," Michael asked Gabriel, "Have you?"

"No, why would I? And what do you need it for anyway?"

"Don't you know who that is?" Michael seemed astonished.

Gabriel gave him a dry look. "Michael. Why would I?"

"Right. But that's _Krum. _Best Seeker ever - I had no idea he was still in school. He played at the cup, you know."

"Thrilling." So he was a sports star. That would account for why everyone seemed to know him, despite the magical world having no internet.

The great hall seemed more packed than usual, though there were barely twenty extra students. It might have been the stark difference between their robes and the black Hogwarts ones - the Durmstrang students, once they took off their furs, were revealed to have robes of bright red.

The Beauxbatons students settled at the Ravenclaw, not very close to where Gabriel and Michael ended up sitting. They seemed to be primarily girls, though there were several boys, and Gabriel wondered how they'd chosen who was going to come. Was it based on talent? Did they only bring those who were seventeen or older?

Durmstrang ended up at the Slytherin table, something Draco looked thrilled about. Gabriel saw him lean over to talk to the Quidditch star. Those from Durmstrang seemed much more impressed than the French, looking up at the ceiling and examining the gold plates, apparently impressed.

There were four extra chairs at the staff table, two on either side of the headmaster. "What do they need four for?" Gabriel asked aloud, attracting Michael's attention. "There are only two headmasters, who are the other two for?"

"Dunno," Michael said, glancing up. "Maybe someone else is coming?"

Dumbledore, Maxine, and the man with the goatee [who Gabriel had heard Dumbledore call Karkaroff] were last to enter the hall. The Beauxbatons students all leaped to their feet when their headmistress entered. Some of the Hogwarts students laughed, but the blue-robed students appeared completely unembarrassed, and continued standing until Maxine had sat down at the staff table.

They must institute more respectful policies at Beauxbatons. Sure, all the Hogwarts students called their teachers 'professor', but they never went quite as far as the French, apparently, did.

Dumbledore remained standing, ready to give a speech. "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, ghosts and - most particularly - guests," he said, eyes still twinkling and that had to be a spell. There was no way they did that naturally. "I have great pleasure in welcoming you all to Hogwarts! I hope and trust your stay here will be both enjoyable and comfortable."

One of the Beauxbatons girls laughed derisively. She was still clutching a muffler around her head. Should have come better prepared.

"The tournament will be officially opened at the end of the feast," Dumbledore continued on, not remarking on the interruption. "I invite you all, for now, to eat, drink, and make yourself at home!"

He sat down. Karkaroff immediately leaned forward to speak to him, but whatever he said was covered by the chatter that sprang up with the food on the plates.

There was much more variety that night - foreign dishes decorated the tables, no doubt in honor of the guests. There was a sort of stew another table over that Gabriel vaguely recognized as being French, but he'd never been one for food - there had never really been a need to eat, and if he did it was usually candy.

The girl with the muffler turned a lot of heads when she finally took it off, revealing a long sheet of silvery hair. Gabriel had to smack Michael to get him to stop staring at her.

"That's not normal," Michael muttered, ducking his gaze back to his food. "Normal girls don't do that."

"You're saying she's not normal?" Gabriel rolled his eyes. "Michael, we're sitting in wizard school. What about this is normal?"

Michael was distracted from replying - no doubt something terribly witty that would render Gabriel completely speechless - by movement at the head table.

The two empty seats had been filled by unfamiliar men, one dressed in bright yellow robes. The other had a toothbrush mustache, and looked so official he stood out from everyone else at the table. He must have been a bureaucrat.

"What's he doing here?" Michael asked blankly.

"Who?"

"The one in the yellow robes - he was at the cup, came by while I was talking to Ron. Works at the Ministry for some department - maybe games and sports?"

"That would explain why he'd be here," Gabriel agreed, not looking back up at the staff table. He was already getting tired of people talking about nothing but the tournament. This year was going to take forever.

Everyone seemed eager to get dinner over with; they still had no clue who the 'impartial judge' was going to be, and tomorrow they would be picking the names of the champions. When the last bit of dessert vanished from the plates, nearly everyone turned expectantly towards the staff table.

Dumbledore stood up once more.

"The moment has come!" He announced. "The Triwizard Tournament is about to start. I would like to say a few words of explanation before we bring in the casket-"

Casket? Were they going to reanimate some sort of long-dead judge to pick and choose? Wizards. Gabriel stopped paying attention and instead looked up at the new arrivals at the staff table. The one with the weird mustache rubbed him the wrong way; something about the man was just off, though if he was a politician that could be easily explained.

Gabriel had never liked politicians. They were too wrapped up in their own motives and ideas, and not those of the people they were supposed to represent. Too easily corrupt. During his time as the Trickster, he'd dealt out justice to more than one senator or governor or something of the sort.

Filch disturbed his thoughts by hauling forward a large, jewel-encrusted chest. The tense atmosphere seemed to sharpen as he placed it right in front of the staff table, in the spot where the sorting hat stood at the beginning of every year.

Dumbledore opened it with his wand and drew out a rough-hewn wooden cup, which might have been entirely unremarkable save for the fact that it was full of dancing, blue-white flames.

Gabriel sat up straighter in interest. This was new.

Dumbledore closed the casket again and placed the Goblet carefully on top, where everyone could see it.

"Anybody wishing to submit themselves as champion must write their name and school clearly on a slip of parchment and drop it into the goblet," said Dumbledore. "Aspiring champions have twenty-four hours in which to submit themselves. Tomorrow night, Halloween, the goblet will return the names of the three it feels are most worthy to represent their schools. The goblet will be placed in the entrance hall tonight, where it will be freely available to those wishing to compete.

"And please note," his voice held an edge of warning now. "There will be an Age Line around the goblet preventing any of those under seventeen from entering themselves. I will be drawing it myself.

"Finally, I wish to impress upon you the danger of entering the tournament. Once your name is in the Goblet, it constitutes as a binding magical contract. It is not something you can turn away from, and if your name is chosen you will be required to see it through to the end. Please be sure, therefore, that you are wholeheartedly willing to compete before entering your name. And now, I think, it is time for bed! Good night to you all."

Gabriel took a last glance at the goblet before they left the hall. Despite having lived so long, it was very rare that he stumbled across an artifact like that. It was clearly wizard-made, but possessed power all the same, and the flames cast a blue glow across the hall which made it look rather eerie.

This would require a closer look.

* * *

**That's all! Long chapter for you guys.**

**Read and review as usual!**


	30. Champions and Dragons

**Yeah I know I went pretty fast to the selection but it was only one day, Gabriel doesn't pay attention a whole lot in class and that's what we all want to read about anyway.**

**I feel like I should explain the whole goblet thing. Yes, Harry Potter's name came out, but if the goblet's smart enough to judge someone when all it has is their name, it's smart enough to figure out that Gabriel is the one inside Harry Potter and choose him instead. Plus, the contract applies to their magical core, which technically is Harry's and was just sort of transplanted over to Gabriel when he possessed Harry.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter.  
**

* * *

The hall was completely silent as Gabriel slipped through the doors, discarding the invisibility cloak as he did so. The Goblet still cast its blue glow, but now there was another source of light as well. A gold circle was inscribed on the floor around it, occasionally flaring up as if mimicking the flames in the cup.

Gabriel stood for several moments, watching it silently. It was nearly midnight, and it had been only too easy to get out of Ravenclaw tower and down to the entrance hall.

The Goblet was very strange.

It might have been because it was made by wizards, but Gabriel had never encountered anything quite like it. It was powerful, yes, and the magic with which it was imbued with was nearly as bright as the fire which filled it. It might have been difficult to look at, if Gabriel were really human.

But then, if he were human, he wouldn't be able to see it at all.

Gabriel dropped his gaze to the gold line in the floor, obviously the age line. Snorting, he stepped over it to take a closer look at the goblet. Like that would do anything to stop him.

Taking a closer look, it became apparent to Gabriel that there were miniscule runes overlaying the goblet. They weren't carved - someone had to have written them on with a wand somehow.

"Interesting." The runes turned the cup into something resembling an artificial intelligence, though it was nowhere near sentient. Gabriel stood up and tilted his head back to regard the flames. It was impossible to identify exactly which spell was creating them, among the mess which were meshed together.

Gabriel smirked. "Quite a relic, but I've seen better." He dug in his pocket. "Now where did I put those?" He pulled out a small stack of names. "There we go. Let's see, who do I want to piss off the most?"

It was a very close match. Gabriel ended up dumping the entire pile in. Serve them right. Let's see what Lucifer and Michael thought of a binding magical contract. Assholes.

Gabriel spun on his heel and turned to leave, stooping to pick up the cloak on his way out and closing the door behind him.

Because of that, he didn't see the person enter on the other side of the hall.

* * *

Halloween was full of muttering and even more speculation about who will enter and who will be chosen for the various schools. In this way, Gabriel learned a lot more about the possible competitors than he'd ever cared to know. Fred and George had ended up with impressive beards trying to beat the age line with some aging potion - so did one of the Ravenclaw girls in Gabriel's year, apparently.

People were gossiping over who had put their name in, and house rivalries were stronger than ever as each House tried to insist that one of their own would win the title of champion. Honestly, it was all anyone ever talked about anymore. Even Hermione came over to discuss it with Michael. Gabriel was almost ready to go and hide somewhere under the invisibility cloak to avoid yet more questions being thrown back and forth about the tournament.

The usual Halloween decorations were in place - colored candles, huge carved pumpkins, live bats fluttering to and fro. They didn't draw much attention, but the Beauxbatons students all lining up to put their names in did.

Halloween night came quickly and at the same time too slowly. The Goblet had been moved so that it now stood in front of Dumbledore's empty chair, and people cast glances through it all through dinner. When the plates finally cleared themselves [to Gabriel's disappointment - it was Halloween after all] Dumbledore rose to speak.

"The Goblet is ready to make its decision," he announced. "I estimate that it requires one more minute. When the champion's names are called, I would ask that they come up here and along the table, and exit through this door." He gestured towards a door to the right of where he was sitting, which most likely led into another room. "There, they will receive their instructions for the first task."

Dumbledore raised his wand and made a sweeping movement with it. At once, all the candles save those in the pumpkins were extinguished, creating a dramatic lighting effect. The goblet was the brightest thing in the room, and nearly everyone's eyes were trained on it.

The flames in the goblet abruptly turned red and flared up, becoming much taller with a sound like a high wind. A tongue of flame shot into the air along with a scrap of parchment, which Dumbledore reached out and caught. He held it at arm's length, to read it by the light of the fire, which had gone back to blue.

"The champion for Durmstrang is Viktor Krum!"

The red-robed students broke into especially loud cheers as applause swept the hall. The person who was presumably Viktor stood up and made his way up to the teacher's table, Karkaroff grinning widely at him as he passed and the door closing with a thud behind him.

The flames turned red once more and another piece of parchment shot out, which was again caught.

"The champion for Beauxbatons is Fleur Delacour!"

More cheering, though many of the other Beauxbatons students looked rather upset. One of them actually dissolved into tears, while Fleur [who was the same girl who had captivated so many of the boys] followed Krum's path up to the door.

Red flames, flaring up, parchment, catch for the third time.

"The Hogwarts champion is Cedric Diggory!"

Gabriel had no idea who that was.

The Hufflepuff table exploded into cheers, jumping to their feet and yelling. The boy who must have been Cedric was grinning broadly as he made his way forward, and the applause lasted so long that it took Dumbledore several minutes to make himself heard again.

"Well!" He said, smiling. "Now we have our three champions! I am sure I can count on every one of you to give them your full support. By cheering your champion on, you will contribute a very real-"

He stopped in the middle of his sentence.

The reason was obvious.

The Goblet had flared red again, sparks pouring from the cup and a fourth piece of parchment shooting into the air. Dumbledore caught it and stared at it for a moment and Gabriel didn't need him to say the name aloud to know whose it was.

The sudden grip of something seizing very tightly around his magical core told him exactly what that parchment said.

"Harry Potter!"

Fucking Halloween bad luck.

* * *

The door creaked as Gabriel pushed it open. It led into a smaller antechamber which was full of shelves piled with all sorts of things, but Gabriel didn't pay attention to it. He was busy composing a Trickster-worthy payback for whatever jackass had decided to put his vessel's name in the Goblet and really, they'd put up a defense to stop people from aging themselves put nothing to stop a person from putting someone else's name in?

Well, that had worked in his favor last night, but regardless. It was stupid.

The other three champions [and why of all things did Gabriel have to be dragged into _this?_] were standing around a small fireplace, where several chairs had been left. They turned to face Gabriel as he got closer.

"What is it?" Cedric asked. "Do they want us to come back into the hall?"

They thought he was here to deliver a message. How ironic, considering Gabriel's past occupation. Gabriel's retort was lost as the door banged open behind them.

"Extraordinary!" said the man who had been wearing yellow robes, walking speedily towards them. Gabriel had no idea who he was. "Really quite amazing! Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce...the fourth triwizard champion!"

"The what?" Krum said incredulously, but just then Dumbledore caught up.

"Harry," he said severely, "Did you put your name in the goblet of fire?"

"Of course not," Gabriel scoffed.

"Did you get an older student to put it in for you?"

"No."

"But of course, he is lying!" Maxine scowled, batting a lamp out of her way and causing it to swing crazily. Gabriel gave her a dirty look which was lost in the sudden arrival of Karkaroff and the other man.

Cedric and Fleur were looking at Gabriel incredulously. "There must have been a mistake," Fleur said, her own accent flavoring the words. "He cannot compete! He is too young."

_Excuse me? _Gabriel was older than her entire family line. And then some. If anything, he was too old.

"What is the meaning of this?" Karkaroff demanded. "I wasn't aware of a rule saying that the host school was allowed _two_ champions, Dumbledore. We were under the impression that your age line would keep out any underage competitors."

"He could not have crossed the age line," McGonagall protested, having come in as well.

"Then you must have made a mistake with the line!" Maxine insisted.

"It is entirely possible, of course." Dumbledore allowed.

"Dumbledore, you know perfectly well that you didn't make a mistake!" McGonagall said angrily. "What nonsense! Harry could not have crossed it, and as Dumbledore believes that he did not get someone else to put his name in that should be good enough for all of you!"

She cast a severe gaze around. Gabriel tried not to laugh. Of course he could cross the age line, but it wasn't like any of them knew that.

"Mr. Crouch...Mr. Bagman," Karkaroff said after several moments of silence. "You are our - er - objective judges. What do you say?"

The mustached man - Crouch, maybe - was standing half in shadow so that he looked like some sort of villain. The mustache didn't help.

"We must follow the rules," he said, "And the rules state that whoever's name comes out of the goblet of fire, they are bound to compete in the tournament."

"Well, Barty knows the rulebook back to front," said the man who was most likely Bagman [and what was he so happy about?].

"I insist upon resubmitting the rest of my students," said Karkaroff. He looked furious, and had dropped his smile. Gabriel stopped paying attention to the man with a roll of his eyes - did he do anything but complain? Honestly. Gabriel refocused on the other three champions, all of whom had been relatively quiet.

They all looked to be in various stages of either disbelief, outrage, or just not caring. Fleur had turned her back to the conversation and had taken a seat in one of the armchairs.

The conversation didn't seem to be stopping anytime soon. Moody had entered at one point, and Karkaroff seemed a bit terrified of him. Strange. Gabriel leaned against the shelf next to him and wondered if he'd ever be allowed to leave the room, or if they were going to keep arguing about the tournament.

"Maybe someone's hoping Potter is going to die for it." Moody growled.

That brought Gabriel's attention back. If this was some sort of assassination plot, then it was very poorly thought out. He almost snorted at the idea of one of the tasks killing him. Please.

They took forever to figure it out, but eventually they all decided that Gabriel had to compete - _which he already knew. _ But no. It wasn't like there was a binding magical contract that had already established itself.

Gabriel tugged on the thing around his magical core. It was very solidly in place. Damnit.

"Mr. Crouch?"

The man with the mustache - Crouch - stepped forward. He looked mildly ill. "Yes...the first task..."

"The first task is designed to test your daring, so we are not going to be telling you what it is," he said to Gabriel and the other three. "Courage in the face of the unknown is a very important quality in a wizard...very important...

"The champions are not permitted to ask for or accept help from teachers to complete the tasks in the tournament. The champions will face the first task armed only with their wands. You will receive information about the second task at the end of the first. Owing to the demanding nature of the tasks, you will all be exempt from end-of-year exams."

Hello, silver lining.

The champions left fairly quickly, Maxine leading Fleur away as they spoke rapidly in French.

Dumbledore looked at Cedric and Gabriel. "Well! I suppose you two had better go up to bed. I am sure Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff are waiting to celebrate with you."

Gabriel went off immediately. Cedric followed behind him, and as they both came out into the now-empty hall Gabriel felt a hand on his shoulder.

"How did you do it?" Cedric asked. "You know...get your name in."

"I didn't put mine in." Gabriel gave Cedric a dry look. "Why would I want to?"

"Why wouldn't you?" Cedric looked astonished. "The prize, of course."

"You mean glory, money, and the cup?" Gabriel raised his hands to tick them off on his fingers. "Fame - got that already, don't need more. Money? Got that too. Fancy trophy? Useless." He dropped his hands again. "So no, I didn't enter myself. Have fun doing whatever the hell Hufflepuffs do."

Gabriel turned on his heel and left.

* * *

The other Ravenclaws were only too ready to celebrate when he got back to the tower that night, but Gabriel just went straight through the mess and up to his dorm, sticking the curtains around his bed shut.

When he woke up the following morning, it took Gabriel a minute to remember why he felt vaguely annoyed. Michael was waiting for him in the now empty common room.

"If you ask me if I entered myself I'm going to throw something."

"I wasn't," Michael said hurriedly. "I mean, I saw how disinterested you were in it. And I'm not stupid."

Gabriel raised an eyebrow skeptically. "So what are you waiting down here for?"

"You." Michael shrugged. "I figured you might want to avoid the hall for now, because of last night. And Hermione wanted to talk to you, by the way."

"Alright." Gabriel opened the door of the common room, Michael standing to follow. "Let's go out by the lake, we can talk there."

* * *

Hermione was waiting in the entrance hall, and didn't complain when they went outside despite the misty morning. "You don't mind skipping breakfast?" she asked as the walked along the shoreline.

"I only eat so people don't think I'm starving myself," Gabriel answered idly, hopping on top of a large rock. "I don't actually need to."

"Really?" Hermione pulled herself up after him. "Does it taste any different?"

"Sort of." Gabriel sat down on the top and looked out over the lake. Hermione reached down to offer Michael a hand up.

"What does it taste like?"

"Molecules."

Michael looked baffled. "What are-"

"It's a Muggle thing," Hermione told nir. "It's a bit complicated. Basically it's what the food's made up of."

"Oh." Michael sat down with a sigh. "You know, I bet you could have gotten over the Age Line."

"I did."

They both looked over at him at that. "I thought you said you didn't put your name in?" Michael asked in confusion.

"I didn't put _mine _in. Or Harry's."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "I'm not even going to ask."

"That's probably a good idea."

They sat in companionable silence for a bit, looking out over the lake as the mist was slowly burned away by the sun.

"How old are you?" Hermione asked suddenly.

Gabriel and Michael both looked at her. Hermione blushed lightly.

"I mean - I suppose you don't have to answer," she muttered. "I was just sort of...wondering."

Gabriel sighed and leaned back. "Neither of you really know much about Christianity, do you? Or any other religions?"

They both shook their heads. Michael propped nemself up a little higher, turning slightly to look at Gabriel.

"Well..." Gabriel considered how to phrase it. "I'm very old. I'm older than the school. Or the lake. Or the mountains. Or the Earth. Or even this universe. I've been around a very long time." Hermione looked fascinated. "There are only a couple of beings older than me - my older brothers, God, and Death."

"Death?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah. The Horseman, you know. Rides a pale horse."

"So like in the Tale of the Three Brothers?" Michael asked. "Death is a person?"

"I wouldn't call him a person by a long shot." Gabriel replied dryly.

"What's the tale of the Three Brothers?" Hermione asked.

"Right, you wouldn't have heard them." Michael summarized the story for her, giving the bare details.

"Did that actually happen?" Hermione glanced up at Gabriel.

Gabriel shrugged. "Don't look at me. What, do you think I have teatime chats with Death?"

Michael snorted at that. "That's an odd picture."

"Aren't there supposed to be four Horsemen?" Hermione listed them off. "Death, War, Famine, Plague..."

"Pestilence," Gabriel corrected. "And yeah, there are four. Death's just the oldest."

"So..." Michael was frowning. "If God was supposed to have created everything, did He create the Horsemen?"

"Maybe." Gabriel shrugged. "I don't think even Death and Him know who's older anymore. It's been a while."

"What about evolution?" Hermione was endlessly full of questions.

"True or not? It's true," Gabriel said, smirking. "Dad just gave it a little push."

"Huh." Hermione considered it. "You know, I looked up what information there was on Gabriel - er, I mean you-"

"Oh, not the _internet."_ Gabriel let himself lie down fully, flopping onto the stone. "So much false information."

"It's just a few things." Hermione sounded a little insulted. "But I was remembering what you told us about Christmas - about how G- er, you had to go tell Mary she was pregnant."

"Don't remind me." Gabriel groaned.

"Was it boring or something?" Gabriel propped himself up again at Michael's slightly incredulous question.

"She thought I was a demon and tried to knock me out with an amphora," he said dryly. "So not the best of times, no."

"She what?"

* * *

Gabriel was pulled out of lessons early a few days later. The girl who had been sent to get him - Luna - was just below his year in Ravenclaw, and was very...odd.

"It's called the weighing of the wands," she told him as they walked. "I'm sure they'll want to take photographs or something."

"Great," Gabriel sighed. "Just what I felt like doing today."

"I'm sure it will be fine," Luna said dreamily as they came to a stop in front of a closed door.

"Right." Gabriel turned away and made to go inside.

"Oh, and Harry?"

"Yeah?"

"You should probably take better care of your wings."

Gabriel froze. Then, he slowly turned around. Luna was smiling gently. "They're not in very good condition," she told him seriously. "I doubt you can fly like that." She turned and continued down the hallway, humming quietly.

Gabriel stared after her.

He certainly hadn't expected to run into someone like that _here._

There were only so many people that could comprehend his true form.

Puzzling over the odds that someone like that would be a wizard - or witch, rather, they seemed to be based on gender here - he opened the door and stepped inside.

The were a lot of people waiting inside, including the other three champions and, for some reason, Ollivander from the wand shop.

"Ah, excellent!" Bagman said. "Now that all four of you are here, we can continue!"

There was a woman with very obviously fake curls standing in front of a man with a large camera, her eyes fixed on Gabriel. Bagman gestured to her. "This is Rita Skeeter - she'll be doing a small piece for the Daily Prophet."

"Maybe not that small," Skeeter muttered. She was still watching Gabriel. "I wonder, would anyone mind if I had a quick interview with our youngest champion?"

"Not at all." Bagman said.

"I mind," said Gabriel at the same time, not moving when Skeeter tried to drag him away. Reporters. Great. He wrenched his arm out of her grip and glanced at Ollivander. "What am I here for?"

"The weighing of the wands," said Dumbledore cheerily as he swept into the room. "Forgive me for being late, I am afraid something came up suddenly." He nodded to Ollivander. "Mr. Ollivander is here to make sure that there are no problems with your wands, and that they are working properly for the first task."

Ollivander stepped forward into the center of the room. "Mademoiselle Delacour, if you would like to go first?"

* * *

By the time they got to Gabriel, he was wondering how long this thing was going to take and handed over his wand almost absentmindedly.

"Ah, yes," said Ollivander, running his fingers over the Enochian. "I remember this one. Twelve inches, pine wood, and a rather unusual feather..."

Ollivander spent longer examining Gabriel's wand, but eventually created a cup of wine and pronounced himself satisfied.

"Thank you all," said Dumbledore. "You may go back to your lessons now - or perhaps it would be quicker to go straight down to dinner-"

Gabriel was out the door before anyone could say anything else.

* * *

There was a letter waiting on Gabriel's bed when he got back to the tower. An owl had obviously dropped it off, since there were several scattered feathers. Gabriel brushed them off as he picked up the letter. Who would be writing to him?

_Harry-_

_I heard about the tournament. I'm coming up to Hogwarts immediately. Remus is coming too. I know you'll say you can look after yourself, and Dumbledore and Moody are both there, but someone's getting a good try at hurting you. Entering you in that tournament would have been very risky, right under Dumbledore's nose._

_Be on watch. I want to hear about anything unusual. I'll arrive by the 22 of November._

_-Sirius_

Huh.

Gabriel hadn't had time to consider Sirius. Of course, he'd been named Harry's godfather - however he'd found out about the tournament, he'd be understandably worried, since he wasn't aware that Gabriel wasn't really Harry Potter.

And if Lupin was coming too...he might have convinced Sirius not to ask about what had happened at the end of last year. Or, they might both have questions that would be difficult to answer.

Maybe he could get Michael and Hermione to explain it for him, if it came to that.

* * *

The days left until the first task seemed to speed by until it was already two days away. There was a Hogsmeade visit that day, but Gabriel declined to go - Hermione had asked if he wanted to meet up in the Three Broomsticks but he knew it was just her trying to get him to talk to Ron again.

Which, incidentally, Gabriel was not actually at fault for. The redhead hadn't spoken or even made an effort to do so ever since Halloween, and Gabriel didn't particularly care to try and mend things. It was Ron's decision, and besides they didn't see each other a whole lot anyway.

There seemed to be a new fad of people wearing buttons which read _Support Cedric Diggory - the REAL hogwarts champion. _Gabriel never ceased to be amazed [and maybe a little annoyed] at the stubbornness of humans. Like he was stealing any glory.

Hermione seemed thoughtful when she came back to the castle, and immediately sought out Gabriel.

"Hagrid wanted me to give you a message," she told him in the great hall at dinner. "Where were you, by the way? I couldn't find you anywhere."

"I was in Muriel's room. What does he want?"

"Mur - oh, right. He said for you to meet him at his hut at midnight, that he had something to show you."

"Show me?" What the hell did Hagrid have to show him?

Gabriel showed up purely out of curiosity.

He didn't wait for Hagrid, of course. He'd brought the cloak, and when something roared in the forest he swung it around himself and went straight in, wondering what sort of creature could make that sort of noise.

The answer turned out to be dragons.

"Fucking hell."

Gabriel was peering over at the huge cages - four of them - from behind a small hill, because dragonfire was still strong enough to rip through any shield he could conjure and he didn't want to have to explain to anyone who might come over why his burns had miraculously healed.

There were people running around trying to keep the dragons under control with some sort of red spell. The one farthest from Gabriel, a spiky black one, was thrashing around in its cage and Gabriel finally had time to wonder why the looked so traditionally dragonish.

There were four different piles of eggs near where Gabriel was hiding and holy mother of shit. These were nesting mothers. Holy fuck Gabriel was going to need a really good plan to not sustain some sort of injury.

And whoever was in charge thought this was a good idea, why?!

* * *

Gabriel dropped into a seat next to Michael the next morning. "I need to ask you some stuff."

"Okay?" Michael glanced over curiously. "Now?"

"Yes. About dragons."

"...What do you need to know about dragons for?"

"It's for the first task."

He could see the moment Michael realized what that meant. "Oh my - you're joking."

"Unfortunately, no."

"What do you need to know?"

"I don't actually have a whole lot of experience with dragons."

"And you think I do?"

"I think you've probably at least heard of what they're like."

Michael hesitated. "I suppose..."

"That'll have to do. Are these dragons the traditional gold-and-virgin-stealing type?"

"_What?_"

"I'll take that as a no. Can they talk?"

"Of course not!" Michael looked at Gabriel incredulously.

"Turn into humans?"

"No!"

"I must be used to a different kind of dragon."

* * *

**Couldn't resist making a joke about the dragons from Supernatural.**

**Read and review!**


	31. Surprising News and the First Task

**Glad you all liked my bit of humor - and I hope you're ready for the first task! **

**Also, remember that family I talked about? They're going to show up in this chapter. Probably. One of them, at least. I hope you're excited. I know I am. I've been mentally writing this out for like a week. Probably longer.  
**

**ANOTHER NOTE: Timeline correction! I know I mention Halloween 1981 a couple times, or maybe just the once when Gabriel faces Quirrel, and I've just realized that with the timeline I have that's actually wrong; due to fourth year taking place in 2012, that Halloween should have taken place in 1998. Unfortunately, since the docs for the chapters I noticed this mistake in have since expired, I can't just go back and fix the typo. Hence, this notice. Apologies!  
**

**Anyway, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter.**

* * *

Sirius made good on his promise to arrive on the twenty-second. Gabriel had, bemusedly, gone up to the headmaster's office that Saturday [having completely forgotten about the letter he'd been sent] and found himself confronted with two mildly frantic men.

"Harry!" Sirius had jumped up as soon as Gabriel set foot over the threshold.

Gabriel remembered the letter in a flash. "Er - hi."

Lupin was sitting in a chair next to the one Sirius had recently vacated. "Hello, Harry."

"You too."

Sirius trapped Gabriel in a hug he was too surprised to duck out of. "I heard about the letter you sent to Madam Bones," he said when he finally let go. Sirius was smiling. "Pretty good."

"You're welcome, I guess."

"We saw the article about the tournament in the Prophet," Lupin said, standing as well. He glanced back at Dumbledore. "Any idea who might have put his name in?"

"I'm afraid not." Dumbledore replied. "Perhaps, though, you would like to go somewhere else to reconnect?"

"Sure," Sirius said before Gabriel could speak.

They ended up at the lake again, when Gabriel finally got a word in edgewise. Sirius seemed simultaneously excited and nervous, but strangely enough, he didn't ask any questions about what had happened at the shack. Lupin had left to go do something else.

"Are you ready for the first task?" Sirius asked. They'd been sitting in silence for some time.

"Yeah." Sort of. "I've got a couple ideas."

"Good." Pause. "You know, um...me and Moony-"

"You and _who?"_

"Remus," Sirius corrected himself. "Moony was a nickname we used-"

_"You_ wrote that map?"

Sirius seemed thrilled. "You've got the map?"

"Fred and George gave it to me last year. Stole it from Filch or something like that."

"Ha! Sounds about right."

"What were you going to say originally?" It was really awkward just sitting by the lake like this.

"Oh, right." Sirius cleared his throat. "Well, um, I don't know if anyone told you, but I was named your godfather."

Christ, please let this not be heading in the direction Gabriel thought it was.

"And, well, I thought maybe..." Sirius ran a hand through his hair. "Since I've been cleared now, and I've got a place...maybe you'd like to come live with me?"

Crap.

* * *

The day of the first task dawned somewhat chilly, not that Gabriel really noticed. He had spent a while in Muriel's room, looking for any notes she might have added to the books on dragons, but what little there was was nigh useless. Gabriel gave it up as a bad job and practiced random spells in case one of them might come in handy.

Michael had offered to help, but all he and Hermione had found was that the eyes were its weakest point, which could make for a handy backup plan but definitely wasn't going to be Gabriel's first move.

If worst came to worst, his wings would be good enough to [painfully] fly him out. _That,_ he could pass off as something magical. Surviving dragonfire with nary a burn? Not so much.

Gabriel had refused Sirius's offer. It would be too much work and besides, his setup with Balthazar worked fine. Sirius had been disappointed [much more so than he let on] but he'd reacted fairly well.

He'd also had another one of the strange dreams which, as usual, vanished almost completely from his memory as soon as he woke up, leaving the faintest trace. This was getting very frustrating. Gabriel puzzled over it as he followed Flitwick outside, Michael and Hermione lingering at the doors to see him off before they went up to the stands and waving wildly. Gabriel distinctly hear Michael shout "Good luck!"

A tent had been erected by the forbidden forest, near where the dragons were. Fleur was sitting on a stool in one corner, and Cedric was pacing back and forth.

"Ah, there you are!" said Bagman cheerfully. He was wearing some sort of robe with a wasp on the back. "Excellent - you're all here - when the audience has assembled, I'm going to be offering each of you this bag-" he held up a small purple sack. "-and you will each select a model of the thing you are about to face. There are different - er - varieties, you see. Oh, and one more thing! Your task is to _collect the golden egg."_

Were they _trying _to get the champions killed? Gabriel found it difficult not to gape at the man. Steal one of a nesting mother's eggs? That cemented it. Wizards were insane.

The sound of people could be heard making their way past the tent for nearly half an hour while Gabriel waited with the other three, who all seemed a bit sick.

Eventually, Bagman opened the neck of the bag and offered it to Fleur, saying "Ladies first."

Fleur reached into the bag, her nervousness apparent. She drew out a tiny green dragon, which was wearing a number 2 around its neck. So that was how they were going to establish an order.

She didn't look surprised at all. Someone must have told her what to expect. Cedric, however, looked totally shocked. Sucked for him.

Krum drew a red dragon with the number three, and Cedric got a blue one with a number one. Which left the spiky black one and number four for Gabriel.

Great.

Cedric left first [after Bagman, for whatever reason, tried to have a private word with Gabriel] and Gabriel proceeded to ignore the commentary completely as he mulled over what spells he knew that might come in handy. There was no way he'd be able to knock out a dragon without his Grace, and he wasn't wasting it on something like this. The whole point was to get the egg, of course so...

Well. If they hadn't put up spells preventing him from summoning it, this might be easier than Gabriel had thought.

Fleur left after Cedric, shakily exiting the tent. Gabriel still didn't pay any attention to the commentary, preferring instead to think of a Plan B. Always have a Plan B. Something the Winchesters had never seemed to grasp completely.

Eventually, it was Gabriel's turn.

The arena was surrounded by a crowd [and if this dragon was sensitive to noise he was going to need a better plan than 'stay away from it'] and also nowhere in sight. The nest of eggs was on the opposite side of the arena, which featured a landscape of really large rocks and a load of gravel.

Might as well go right ahead and try.

Gabriel took out his wand. "Accio Golden egg."

Nothing happened.

"Of course it's not that easy," he grumbled to himself. "Whoever decided that this task was a good idea is a sadist."

Gabriel looked around for the dragon. It hadn't made an appearance when he'd taken out the spells, and the most surefire way to get it to come out would be to walk towards the nest. Except Gabriel wasn't an idiot.

And he knew exactly where the dragon was.

Gabriel took a step towards it, disguising it as going towards the nest, and the spiky creature leaped out at him in one smooth movement, Gabriel ducked hurriedly behind a rock as the dragon decided that blasting him with fire was a good idea.

"Shit!" Oh, well. Time for Plan B. Pretend it's a really big snake.

"§_Wait, wait, wait!§"_

The dragon actually stopped. Thank Dad. Of course, the crowd had gone completely silent too, but screw them [except for Michael and Hermione]. They were getting off watching him go up against a dragon.

Cautiously, Gabriel stepped out from behind the rock. "§_Can you understand me?§" _If Parseltongue didn't work, then he was fucked.

The dragon was watching him carefully, but made no move to breathe fire again or to attack him.

"§_Yes.§"_

The reply sounded garbled, as though he was talking to someone with a very thick accent.

"§_I'm supposed to take that gold egg. The one in your nest. It's a fake§."_

_"§I know.§" _The dragon sounded almost insulted.

_"§So you won't mind if I go get it then.§"_

The dragon looked at him carefully. Then, it turned back to look at the nest.

Gabriel dropped to the ground as it picked up the egg and hurled it at him, the golden thing impacting on the ground several feet away. He glanced back at it, then at the dragon, who was looking down at him imperiously.

Gabriel picked up the egg and left the now completely silent arena with it under his arm.

* * *

He was ushered into a tent by Madam Pomfrey and pushed onto a bench before Gabriel could explain that he wasn't injured.

"Do you mean to say that you went up against a dragon and came out completely fine?" Madam Pomfrey asked incredulously.

"Basically, yes."

Madam Pomfrey didn't have any time to reply as several people came suddenly into the tent. It was Hermione and Michael.

"What was that?" Hermione shrieked.

"That was awesome," Michael said almost reverently, with a note of relief in nir voice. "You alright."

"I'm fine. _That_ was me getting the egg." Gabriel shifted it under his other arm. "Was there anything else?"

"Anything else?" Hermione demanded, still indignant. "You looked like you were talking to it!"

"What?" Madam Pomfrey was looking at him even more incredulously. There were also three smaller, curtained-off cubicles that no doubt contained the other three champions, also listening in.

"Come on." Gabriel dragged Michael outside, Hermione following. No need to have this conversation with an audience, and Madam Pomfrey was too shocked to stop him.

"Wait, you've got to get your score-"

"Eh, who cares."

"What were you doing?" Hermione demanded as they walked back up to the school.

"Talking to it."

"You're _joking."_

"Nope."

"Talking to it?" Michael looked bewildered. "How?"

"Well, I opened my mouth and talked to it."

"Very funny." Hermione said. Her brows were furrowed like she was deep in thought. "The only thing I can think of that might let you do that would be Parseltongue, but-"

"Ding!" Gabriel tapped Hermione on the head. "Correct answer, you win absolutely nothing."

"Parseltongue?" Michael was actually gaping at this point. "But how can you speak it?"

"No idea." Gabriel looked up at the school. "D'you think the other tasks will be as potentially deadly to regular people?"

* * *

Winter fell on Hogwarts. Gabriel was pulled aside after Charms to be informed of the date of the next task [apparently he was supposed to have stayed behind a little longer after the first] and that the egg was a clue as to what the second task would be.

The weather was horrible [as usual for a winter this far north] but luckily this year there was no one trying to persuade Gabriel into coming out to watch Quidditch games. Sirius had gone back to wherever he was staying before the first task even started, but only after imparting what he no doubt thought was necessary advice.

There was, however, something else on Gabriel's mind.

Some time after the first task, he'd gotten another one of the strange, unmemorable dreams. Except this time, he'd realized what was happening in the middle of it.

"Screw this," Gabriel growled. "Who the hell is messing with my mind? There are only so many people who-"

Oh.

_Shit._

Gabriel reached out mentally and answered.

No one was messing with his mind.

They were calling him.

Gabriel found himself in a familiar misty landscape, completely white. It was impossible to tell where it began or ended, and the only sign that there was even a floor was the fact that he was standing on something.

"Finally," said a disgruntled voice from behind him. Gabriel turned around.

There was a woman standing there in elaborate armor, and wearing a helm which covered the left half of her face. The entire left half of her body, in fact, was covered, one glove and a pair of vambraces which covered her forearms ensuring that. Dark hair cascaded from under one side of the helm, and the visible half of her face showed that she was smiling slightly despite her tone.

"I thought you'd never answer," she said. "I have been calling for ages."

"Apologies," Gabriel said, grinning slightly. "I've been a bit busy, Hel."

Hel smiled wider. "Why, _father,_ don't tell me you forgot?"

"I wouldn't say forgot-" Gabriel frowned. "Don't make fun of me."

"If I wanted to make fun of you, I would not mock _that."_ Now that Hel stepped closer, it was embarrassingly obvious that she was much taller. She cast her eyes over Gabriel. "Care to explain what's happened to you?"

"It's a long story."

"I thought that was the point of these meetings? To tell stories?"

"Fair enough." Gabriel took a seat as a chair appeared like it had been there the whole time and he'd just noticed it. A table formed in a similar fashion as Hel took her own seat. "How have you been doing?"

"Don't change the subject, dad."

"Fine, then." Gabriel let out a long, exaggerated breath which did not deter Hel at all. "I assume you were watching the whole mess with the Apocalypse and such?" Hel nodded.

She listened intently as Gabriel explained [in more detail than he'd ever given Hermione and Michael; Hel was at least seven centuries old, she could handle it] how he'd ended up in the Potter's home and their kid in 1998.

"Well," she said when he had finished. "That's certainly not what I expected."

"I would be incredibly surprised if you had expected something like that."

"So you say you're having troubles with your power?"

"Well, of a sort..." Had he explained the angel thing to her?

"You did," Hel said, making Gabriel start. He'd forgotten that about this meeting place - it was near impossible to keep your thoughts to yourself. "I suppose that does explain several things..."

Gabriel frowned. "What things?"

Hel sat back in her seat. "I did find out what happened at the Elysian - don't be so surprised," she said, noticing Gabriel's look. "I do pay attention, and when five different pagan gods are killed in one night it tends to attract attention."

"I suppose."

_"You_ aren't paying attention, though," said Hel sternly. "Dad, do you even remember what happened? Odin was killed."

"And I'd like to shake Lucifer's hand for that. What about it?"

"If he's dead," Hel said, obviously frustrated that he wasn't getting whatever point she was making, "Then he can hardly keep up any of his long-term spells, can he?"

Gabriel almost opened his mouth to ask what she meant before it hit him with the force of being run over by a semi truck.

"You don't mean-" Gabriel gaped at her.

"My siblings?" Hel arched one eyebrow. "Yes, I do."

"But - if those spells are wearing off-" Gabriel ran one hand over his face. He was sure he looked the textbook picture of shock. "Hel, _I don't have the power to go get them."_

"I know that now." Hel was now watching him with something akin to worry. Gabriel leaned back in his chair, letting his hand rest over his mouth. "But you're forgetting something."

"What?"

"The spells placed on _me _are also wearing off." Hel gave him a small smile. "It would be only too easy to leave Helheim now - you did show me how to enter the paths between realms, after all."

Gabriel stared for a moment before he truly realized what she was offering. "Hel..."

"They are my siblings," she reminded him, "And not just your children. It is nothing." She suddenly smirked in a way that was entirely Gabriel. "I assume you will not be too busy with school to receive them?"

Gabriel made a noise that was half-laughter and half something closer to a sob. "No, I - there's a vacation coming up, I can go home for that."

"And where should I bring them?"

Gabriel gave Hel the location of the house Balthazar had gotten. "Hel - if they remember anything-"

"We shall deal with that when we come to it." Hel was worried, but she hid it admirably well.

"Thank you, Hel." The chairs and table vanished as they both stood up. "Here - come here." Gabriel had to lean up slightly to give her a proper hug.

They remained like that for several moments before Hel pulled away. "I will go now," she said. "It wouldn't do to waste time - besides, it may take a while to find them."

That pulled at Gabriel's heart. "Yeah," he said, swallowing back the lump in his throat as he thought about what had happened to them. "Thank you, Hel. Really."

"I would do it anyways."

The misty landscape faded away and Gabriel woke up in his bed in Ravenclaw tower. He turned over and tried to ignore the wet patch on his pillow.

* * *

Flitwick ended a Charms lesson [which Gabriel had been paying zero attention to, he'd already learned the spell anyway] early a few days later to give them all a surprising announcement.

"The Yule Ball," he said, "is rapidly approaching! It is a traditional part of the Triwizard Tournament, and an opportunity for us all to celebrate! Now, it will only be open to those fourth year and above - but any Ravenclaw who does attend, nontheless, I expect the best behavior from all of you! It will be held on Christmas day at eight o'clock, and finish at midnight."

The bell rang just then. Flitwick stopped Gabriel from leaving. "Mr. Potter - a word, please?"

"What?"

"It's about the ball." Flitwick waited until the hallway was relatively empty. "The champions and their partners are expected to open the dance, of course-"

"What?!"

"Open the dance," Flitwick repeated. "I thought I ought to tell you ahead of time, so you can be sure to ask someone. That is all!" He quickly retreated back into the classroom, leaving Gabriel staring at the closed door.

_But I've got to go **home **for Christmas._

* * *

The days leading up to Christmas break were not nearly as relaxed for Gabriel as they were for the others.

First off, there was the ball. He couldn't skip it - too many questions - but there was also no way he was staying at Hogwarts. Gabriel ended up just deciding that he'd create a double to stay and use the cloak to get on the train back to London.

That still left the problem of a date, but it was easy enough to ask Luna Lovegood if she'd like to go [she said yes].

And then...there was actual preparation for what would happen over break.

Because Gabriel had no fucking idea how to be a parent.

It wasn't like he'd been put in that position for the last seven centuries, and even if he had he's still need a load of stuff. Food, for one thing. Clothes. Gabriel spent ages looking up and perfecting conjuration spells, since his Grace was going to be absolutely useless unless he wanted to burn it out again.

He stubbornly ignored the issue of how they might have been affected by The Incident. Like Hela said - he'd take care of it when it came to that.

When the time came that those under fourth year [practically everyone else had signed up to stay in anticipation of the ball] he snapped up a double and remembered to scrawl a letter of explanation to Luna because of course, she'd notice that it wasn't him. It was unlikely anyone else would, though, but he added a PS to just give anyone who asked about him the note.

It was pathetically easy to sneak onto the Hogwarts Express in the invisibility cloak, and a couple quick charms ensured that the glass couldn't be seen through and no one would even notice the compartment.

It seemed like years before the train pulled into the station in London, and Gabriel waited until the platform was nearly empty before exiting back into the Muggle side and disappearing into the crowd. He'd left his trunk at Hogwarts, since it would look suspicious otherwise, and the bag at his side carried very little - the double could take care of the homework. Gabriel would be busy enough.

He navigated the mess that was the London bus system, remembering his route from last summer. The house was empty when he came back, and the single lamp that he flipped on in the entryway didn't do a whole lot to help.

Gabriel stood there for a few moments before pulling his wand out. Fifteen year olds weren't allowed to do magic on their own, after all, and he'd need to get rid of the Trace of he wanted to be able to do anything.

* * *

**Well? What do you think?**

** Also, if you're wondering about The Incident, it's something similar to what happens in Lost Boys by thisisnotwhoyouthink. For more Loki kid! feels, I'd recommend reading Raven Ehtar's 'Loki's Brood' series. Very nice. Lots of frostiron. But I'm getting off topic!**

**Read and review!**


	32. Christmas, Kids, and Guests

**That was fast! I didn't expect so many reviews so soon after I posted the chapter [362 reviews?!]. You seem relatively excited about the kids, at least.  
**

**Lots of fluff in this chapter. I couldn't resist. Also, just to specify: when I said that The Incident is a lot like what happened in Lost Boys, I'm suggesting that you read that at least a little to make sense of this. Because Gabe's kids are not a wolf/snake/horse. Hel is half dead though.  
**

**A question which has been raised: what about the rule against nephilim? Well, nephilim are the result of forbidden angel/human relationships...I wouldn't say that Pagan goddesses were exactly human, would you?**

**Gabriel is very good with loopholes.**

**"English"**

**"|Norse|"**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter.**

* * *

The first few days of Christmas break was spent layering the house in brand-new wards. The fence, which stretched around the front and surrounded the backyard as well, was painted over with invisible Enochian runic wards, and by the time Gabriel had finished the house was completely impenetrable to anyone who had not been invited. Hel, of course, could come and go as she pleased, and it was very recently after Gabriel finished that she came through with her promise.

Of course, being Hel, she couldn't just knock on the door.

Gabriel was woken up in the middle of the night by a heavy weight on his chest.

He blearily opened his eyes and looked down at a curly, dark-haired head.

"Faðir," said Fenris, his voice muffled, as he was pressing his face into Gabriel's chest.

Gabriel stared for only a moment before sitting up abruptly, his arms coming up to hold Fenris. "Fenris," he gasped out. He was not going to cry. He was not. He was an adult and he could control himself.

Fenris sniffled into his shirt and Gabriel felt his stomach drop as he noticed the thick, angry red lines around Fenris's wrists. "No, no..." Gabriel belatedly remembered to switch to Norse. "|Shhh, Fenris, it's alright...|" A single thought had bandages wrapped around the marks, ones spelled with numbing magic. If the marks were caused by what Gabriel thought they were, he wasn't going to be able to heal them that quickly. "|Hey, sshhhh, it's okay...|"

Fenris sniffed again and curled closer to Gabriel's chest, tucking small legs up and revealing more marks around both of his ankles. Stifling a pang of anger, Gabriel conjured more bandages, ignoring the toll on his Grace, and looked at Fenris properly. He looked like he was about four or five years old, the same size he'd been when It happened.

The spells must have had more side effects than Gabriel had anticipated.

"|Fenris, shhh, I've got you.|"

"|Missed you,|" Fenris spoke into Gabriel's chest again. "|Hel said I was gone for a really long time.|"

Something hopeful and at the same time sad twisted in Gabriel. "|Do you remember what happened?|"

"|No.|" Fenris yawned, his tears subsiding. "|Hel said a bad man took me away and used magic on me and hid me so you couldn't find me.|"

"|I couldn't. Hel had to find you for me.|" Gabriel ran a hand through Fenris's hair. Coincidentally enough, Fenris looked very similar to his current vessel - dark hair and green eyes, though it was a different shade of green - darker, more subdued. Gabriel glanced over at the clock, which read five AM. "|Are you tired?|"

Fenris just nodded, already drooping against Gabriel. "|I'm cold.|"

"|That's because you're on top of the blanket, silly.|" Gabriel edged the green comforter out from underneath Fenris and draped it over the both of them, lying back down so that Fenris was resting on his chest. "|You need to sleep, it's too early to be awake.|"

"|Promise not to leave?|"

Gabriel swallowed thickly. "|Yeah. I'll stay here with you.|"

There was no way he was going anywhere.

* * *

Gabriel was woken up [again] by someone bouncing on his ribcage about four hours later.

"Oof!" Just because he was an angel didn't mean he didn't feel it. Fenris giggled, which made Gabriel smile despite the fact that Fenris had just literally jumped on him.

"Sun," Fenris said in English, pointing out the window where sunlight was streaming in.

"|Yeah, it's morning.|" Gabriel had nearly forgotten that he'd been teaching Fenris English. "|Are you hungry?|"

"M-hm."

"|Come on, I'll show you where the kitchen is.|"

Fenris rolled off of Gabriel's chest and sat on the edge of the bed as Gabriel swept the covers off. Gabriel swung his legs over the edge and stood up, pausing when he saw Fenris raised his arms.

"|Carry me,|" Fenris said, slightly petulantly. Gabriel didn't even pause before picking him up.

"|Where are we?|" Fenris asked as they went downstairs. He was looking around and the large house - Balthazar hadn't even blinked an eye at what was practically a small manor.

"|We're at home.|" It wasn't like he could call anyplace else by that title.

"|Where are Slepnir and Jor?|"

Gabriel didn't answer at first.

"Faðir?"

"|Hel's looking for them too right now.|"

Fenris looked at him, eyes wide. "|They got hidden too?|"

"|...Yeah. Don't worry about them,|" Gabriel told Fenris. "|That's my job. Your job right now is to get something to eat.|"

"|Okay.|" Just like that, Fenris accepted it. Gabriel wondered if he had ever been as innocent as Fenris was.

* * *

While Fenris was technically over seven and a half centuries old, he only remembered the first fifty years and consequently was still mostly a child. Added to the fact that he hadn't aged at all physically, he was exactly the same as he'd been before The Incident.

Of course, this also meant that Gabriel was unable to do any of the homework he'd bothered to bring, as Fenris kept trying to borrow his parchment and quill and anything he managed to write ended up covered in inky doodles, runes, and the occasional handprint. Gabriel thought that this was really a very small price to pay. Besides, his double could take care of the homework.

Fenris seemed perfectly content to wander the house and explore, but he didn't get very far - Gabriel was determined to keep him in sight, which meant that either they were both walking around or Gabriel snapped up some sort of game for them to play.

Luckily, he'd bought an assortment of Muggle games on his way back from King's Cross [there was no way he was introducing Fenris to the wizarding versions quite yet]. Fenris seemed to like them, but even if he didn't ask again Gabriel noticed every time he turned around to excitedly talk to someone that wasn't there and was brought up short by their absence.

Hopefully, Hel would be back soon.

* * *

Gabriel was woken for the second time in three days in the middle of the night. Not by a weight on his chest [even though there technically was, since Fenris had insisted on sleeping like that] but instead by something moving around in the dark.

Frowning, he carefully slid Fenris off his chest, sat up, and turned on the light.

There was someone standing right next to the bed.

"|I don't like the dark,|" Jormungand wailed. Gabriel was already swinging his legs off the bed and pulling him up into his lap. The light switch by the door flicked itself on and the room was suddenly much lighter as Jormungand buried his face in Gabriel's shirt. He was taller than Fenris, with lighter brown hair, but they had several similar features.

"|Hush, it's okay, the dark's gone now.|" Gabriel ran a hand over Jormungand's back in a soothing motion, wondering why a crying child was so much easier to deal with than a crying best friend. "|Shhh, I've got you.|"

The light-filled room did seem to calm Jormungand down a little, and Gabriel could hear Fenris stirring behind him. Sure enough, Fenris was peering around his arm at Jormungand in a few moments.

"Jor!" Fenris went from delighted to confused at the speed of light. "|Why is he crying?|"

"|He's scared, Fenris.|"

Fenris frowned, then hauled himself into Gabriel's lap as well and put a hand on Jormungand's face. "|No crying,|" he said stubbornly.

Gabriel smiled at his attitude. "|Jor, shhh, we're both here, see? No scary things.|"

Jormungand shook his head. "|Hurts.|"

Panic sprang up in Gabriel. "|You're hurt? Where?|" He ran his hands over Jormungand, who stiffened when Gabriel reached his sides and then relaxed in the same moment as the bruises vanished.

"|Better?|" Gabriel asked. Jormungand nodded, sniffing and reaching his hand up to rub at his eyes.

Gabriel ran a hand through Jormungand's curls. "|You're okay,|" he breathed, holding him closer. "|You're gonna be fine.|"

* * *

Fenris was only too eager to take his big brother on a tour of the house as soon as they all woke up again, after staying up until the sun could be seen peeking above the horizon. Jormungand allowed himself to be pulled along as Fenris chattered away and Gabriel made sure neither of them got into any sort of trouble [which was so much harder than it looked, how did Mrs. Weasley _deal _with seven of them?].

Eventually Gabriel managed to keep them both in one place long enough to have a decent meal and see if Jormungand was still alright. He seemed happy enough, and was listening intently as Fenris described the picture he'd made on what had started out as a History of Magic assignment, which ended in them both scribbling away with some paper and markers Gabriel had located in the closet he'd stored all the board games in.

Gabriel was sitting in the living room when sudden, rapid footsteps left the room and then some muffled talking sounded from the hallway. He turned around to see the paper and markers abandoned on the floor and, curious, poked his head around the doorway to see Jormungand trying to unlock the door. Fenris was standing next to him, shifting around eagerly.

"|Jor? Where are you going?|"

They both turned around with a start. "|We were gonna go outside,|" Fenris said unrepentantly.

Gabriel raised an eyebrow as he stepped out into the hallway. "|Is that so? But it's snowing. Where are your shoes?|"

Both of them looked down at their [completely bare] feet.

"|Um...|" Fenris looked up sheepishly. "|I don't know.|"

"|You have to wear a shoes when you go outside.|"

Fenris thought for a moment and then shook his head. "|Can we play a game?|"

"|Go ahead. Why don't you let Jor pick, though?|"

"|Okay.|" Fenris took off down the hall, and Jormungandr reached for Gabriel's hand. "|You too.|"

"|Alright.|" Gabriel smiled down at him, taking his hand. "|Did Fenris show you any of the games yet?|"

Jormungand shook his head. He'd always been the quietest.

"|No? Well then you can see what we have and choose what looks good. Okay?|"

Nod.

* * *

It was always in the middle of the night. Gabriel thought that maybe Hel was trying to make a point about something, but he couldn't bother to be frustrated at her as someone shook him awake carefully.

Gabriel almost jolted upright again before he remembered Fenris on his chest. "Slepnir," he whispered, reaching a hand up to cup Slepnir's face.

Slepnir was kneeling next to him on the bed, but his eyes were on Fenris and Jormungand, who were sprawled out on and next to Gabriel. "|Hel brought me back,|" he whispered back.

"|Come here.|" Gabriel looped an arm around Slepnir and pulled him down to the bed on the only side that wasn't taken up by the blanket hog named Jormungand. "|Are you hurt?|" He kept his voice low to avoid waking up the other two - Fenris was hard enough to get to sleep, especially in the middle of the day.

"|No.|"

Gabriel sighed. Thank Dad. At least one of them was alright. "|Here, come under the covers.|" He flipped open the comforter so Slepnir could slip in.

Slepnir pulled the blanket up to his chin and tucked himself into Gabriel's side. He was the oldest, looking to be about ten and a good few inches taller than Jormungand, if Gabriel remembered correctly. Gabriel left his arm around Slepnir and ran a hand through his hair soothingly.

"|You alright?|"

Slepnir nodded, which Gabriel felt more than he saw even in the light which he'd taken to leaving on in the hallway for Jormungand. He stretched one of his arms over Gabriel and Fenris, who shifted slightly but stayed asleep.

"|What happened?|" Slepnir whispered. Dread coiled in Gabriel. "|I don't remember anything.|"

"|Don't worry about it, Slepnir.|" Gabriel sighed. "|It's taken care of now.|"

Slepnir didn't reply, but Gabriel could tell that his question had been far from answered.

"|Go to sleep. I'll still be here when you wake up.|"

* * *

"|No, you have to do it like this!|"

"|Shhh, you'll wake him up!|"

"|I'm being quiet!|"

"|Not that quiet,|" Gabriel muttered, wondering what they were getting up to now.

There was a sudden hush. Then-

"|You woke him up, see!|"

"|Okay, enough fighting.|" Gabriel sat up, noticing that Fenris had decided at some point to drape himself over Slepnir instead. "|What is going on?|"

"|Nothing,|" Jormungand muttered.

"|Really,|" Gabriel said dryly. "|Because from where I'm sitting about three inches away it sounded like you were arguing.|"

"|I was just trying to show him how to do it right,|" Slepnir said petulantly and Gabriel realized that they were both holding half-folded bits of paper.

"|What are you making?|" Since when did Slepnir know how to do origami? Gabriel wasn't sure whether origami had even existed by the 1300s.

"|Hel showed me how to do it.|" Oh, that explained it. "|It's supposed to be a fortune teller.|"

Gabriel sat up all the way, grinning at them. "|Well, why don't you finish those after you've had something to eat.|"

Jormungandr looked disappointed, but Slepnir dropped his paper and slid off the bed right away, edging Fenris out of his lap. Fenris [who against all odds was still asleep] squirmed as Gabriel picked him up.

"|Noooo,|" he grumbled, batting at Gabriel's shoulder halfheartedly.

"|It's morning Fenris, time to wake up.|"

"|_Sleepy.|"_

_"|_Use full sentences, Fenris.|"

Fenris made a muffled sound and put his face against Gabriel's shoulder, evidently trying to go back to sleep. This time, Gabriel didn't question the warm feeling in his chest and just tried to get downstairs faster before Slepnir or Jormungand, who were both already in the kitchen, set something on fire.

* * *

Christmas Eve was a cheerful affair, despite none of the three boys really understanding what the holiday was for. Gabriel had bought some Muggle crackers and Fenris was thrilled with the blue tissue-paper crown inside his, and would have worn it to bed if Gabriel hadn't stopped him.

There was a minor argument over a miniature plastic ring toss which was resolved when everyone lost interest in it as soon as Gabriel mentioned that if they went to bed on time they might get to open a present early.

Christmas was full of excited yells and Slepnir proudly wearing the knitted dragon sweater Gabriel had shrunk down - he hadn't disliked it, but when he received it from Mrs. Weasley all he could think about was his sons' recent dragon infatuation after he'd found a DVD of that Viking movie.

Seeing them all slumped over each other as they slept off the time they should have slept last night [Fenris had woken them all up at six] made Gabriel seriously wonder whether it would be worth it to go back to Hogwarts.

He had to, of course.

People would talk if he simply vanished. By now he would be able to teach himself spells well enough, his magical core had mostly settled, but there was the tournament to consider as well as his celebrity status. His magic was his strongest defense at the moment, and if Gabriel didn't continue to compete he'd loose that and, by proxy, the wards he'd assembled around the house.

Harry Potter, of course, could not just disappear from the magical world right now. People would talk. They would come looking. And like it or not, he could not hide forever, not right under their noses, and Gabriel was not going to condemn his sons to a life in hiding.

Which meant he had to figure out what to do when the time came to return to Hogwarts, like it or not.

Gabriel sighed and wondered if Sigyn would actually kill him if he turned up on her doorstep. Provided he could actually find her, of course.

* * *

Hel turned up shortly after everyone woke up for the second time, wearing a glamor which hid the left half of her face under a completely normal-looking appearance.

"Hel!" She was promptly mobbed by several excitable boys, and Gabriel only grinned as she disentangled herself from them.

"You did not think I would miss Christmas, did you, Dad?" She asked Gabriel, who only shrugged.

"It's nice of you to turn up, Hel."

"I would not miss it, after all the trouble I went through to locate my brothers."

Jormungand tugged at Gabriel's shirt. "|What are you saying?|" He demanded. Gabriel laughed.

"|Sorry, Jor. Hel forgot you aren't good at English yet.|"

"|I'm good at English,|" Jormungand muttered rebelliously. Gabriel laughed again and turned around towards the living room, calling over his shoulder "Come on, I'm sure Fenris will want to give you the grand tour."

"|The house is really big!|" Fenris had rushed up to talk to Hel. "|There are only two floors though.|"

"|Indeed?|" Hel looked down at him with a smile. "|And what is your Christmas tree like?|"

"|_Really _big!|"

"|It's not that big,|" Slepnir teased. "|You're just short.|"

"|Be nice to your brother,|" Gabriel chided. "Hel, can I have a quick word?"

"Of course."

Gabriel managed to distract the three boys with Uno cards before he and Hel slipped into the adjoining kitchen. Gabriel closed the door.

Hel was studying him intently. "Something is wrong."

"No, no," Gabriel waved away her concerns. "It's just...I'm going to have to go back to Hogwarts."

Understanding washed over Hel's face. "You need someone to take care of them."

"Yeah, so..." Gabriel pulled a letter out of his pocket. Hopefully this wouldn't blow up in his face. "Do you know where Sigyn lives?"

Hel was staring at him in outright shock. "_Sigyn?"_

"I know, it's probably a bad idea."

"But Sigyn?" Hel shook her head. "Why not Vali and Narvi?"

"They're _alive?"_

Hel gave Gabriel a thoroughly unimpressed look. "When your sister is Queen of Helheim it is possible to escape many impossible things. And they never actually died, you know."

"They-." Jesus Christ. Gabriel hadn't even dared to hope that Sigyn might have saved the twins. "I - I guess they would be easier to approach than Sigyn-"

"She still keeps in contact with them, you know."

"_Sh_-" Gabriel cut himself off, aware that there were three kids on the other side of the door. Hel was watching him with an amused expression.

"I will take the letter and ask the twins if they are willing," she said, plucking the paper from Gabriel's hands. "Just this once. I am not a mail courier."

"No, of course not-" Gabriel looked at her incredulously. "I only asked because I've got no idea where she is and I couldn't go even if I did."

Hel nodded, half-smiling. "I was kidding, Dad." She tucked the letter away into her pockets. "I will give them the letter, and if Sigyn does show up and your soul ends up in Helheim rest assured I will keep hold of it for a while to ensure she is gone."

"...Right."

Hel smiled and opened the door again, tucking the letter away. "|Now what is this game you are playing, Fenris?|"

* * *

The disturbance, of sorts, came at the edge of the wards several days later.

Frowning, Gabriel checked to see who it was. It looked like the twins and holy shit Sigyn was with them. He was dead. So dead.

At least Fenris was asleep for the moment and Slepnir and Jormungand were upstairs, so if there was a fight none of them would see it.

Sighing, Gabriel let the three of them in.

He met them at the door and even Sigyn's eyebrows shot up when she saw him.

"Come in," Gabriel said, internally sighing as he realized he'd have to explain what had happened all over again. It was getting very frustrating, but at least the three boys hadn't asked any questions so far.

Sigyn brushed past him without another word. Vali and Narvi were slightly warmer, nodding hello and even a muttered greeting of "Dad." Then again, they hadn't had much time to get annoyed by him or inherit the famous pagan dislike of angels.

Gabriel closed the door behind them and tried to brace himself for what was about to happen.

"Why have I been called here?" Sigyn asked as soon as they were all sitting in the living room.

"I asked Vali and Narvi to come," Gabriel pointed out.

Sigyn snorted. "If you think I am going to let my sons visit _you _without me then you are sorely mistaken."

_"Mom,"_ Vali complained.

"Why _are_ we here?" Narvi was looking at Gabriel with interest.

"Did Hel explain about Slepnir and the others?"

"She mentioned that they had been freed." Vali put in, making _freed_ sound almost like a question. Of course, they wouldn't know exactly what had happened. "She didn't say why you wanted to see us, though."

"Or that you had somehow become a fourteen-year-old," Sigyn said, eyebrow rising again.

Gabriel was forced to explain the whole story [again] as the three of them listened with mounting incredulity. Luckily they already knew about the angel thing, even if Sigyn hadn't been entirely understanding.

"So you have to compete in this...tournament thing," Vali summarized, "Or you'll lose part of your power, and because of this you can't take care of Slepnir, Jor, and Fenris?"

"Basically."

"I can't picture you following the rules," Narvi said in an undertone.

"I do so because I'm low on power and it would attract too much attention. I can keep a low profile, you know."

Sigyn looked like she'd very much like to say something, but was holding her tongue. "So you called us here to act as babysitters?" She asked coolly.

"I called Vali and Narvi to ask if they'd help out with their siblings," Gabriel said tersely. "I didn't expect you to come as well, since I didn't think you'd be interested."

"How long would we stay?" Narvi asked quickly, eyes flicking between Sigyn and Gabriel.

"It depends on how long you're willing, I guess." Gabriel sighed. "I have to go back for the rest of this year - which is from the seventh 'till late June. I might be able to work out a way to skip out on the last couple years I'm expected to go, but that's probably not going to happen. My vessel also has something of a reputation, so more than just a few people would notice if I just up and vanished."

Vali looked thoughtful. "How many more years would there be after this?"

"There are seven total; I'm only in fourth. There's some sort of important exam in fifth, I might be able to drop out after that, but again it's not an assured scenario." Gabriel explained. "In all likelihood, unless the headmaster finds out that I'm more than just this Potter kid, I'll have to stick it out."

Vali glanced over at Narvi, who made a face back at him. This continued for several moments before they finally seemed to come to a decision.

"What the hell." Narvi shrugged. "I don't have much else going on." Sigyn looked at him incredulously.

Vali grinned. "It would be nice to see some more family."

Sigyn sighed heavily. "Whatever I hold against you," she said, pinning Gabriel with a glare, "Does not extend to children. I suppose I can help out."

Well. It was more than Gabriel had expected her to do. She hadn't even gone for her knives once [and Gabriel was sure she still carried them].

"Thank you," he said honestly, letting out a breath. "It means a lot."

"Save it," grumbled Sigyn. "This is not a favor to you." But her voice wasn't as venomous as it could have been.

* * *

***raises eyebrows* Well? What do you think? I got through a lot in this chapter, and hopefully you appreciate the effort that went into this.**

**You're lucky; originally I wasn't going to include Sigyn but then I decided it would be cooler to have her live. No promises of romance!**

**Read and review, as always!**


	33. The Second Task and The Fall

**Glad you're all excited about the kids! Just so you know, Sigyn, Vali, and Narvi may have larger roles to play later on...I mean I doubt anyone is going to sit idly by while Voldemort rises. If he even manages to in this timeline.**

**Hehehe. Only I know if he will or won't. Mwahaha. You'll just have to wait and see.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter.**

* * *

The end of Christmas break did not go well.

There had been yelling. There had been several minor tantrums. There had been crying. Fenris had fastened himself to one of Gabriel's legs and refused to let go for nearly an hour.

And yet, at the end of it, Gabriel had found himself [once again] hidden in a temporarily impenetrable compartment on the Hogwarts express, with the same bag and supplies he'd brought with him on the trip there.

It was also time to think about figuring out whatever clue was inside the egg. Gabriel hadn't brought it with him - he hadn't even opened it since the dragon had thrown it at him - but February the twenty-fourth was rapidly approaching and it would just be embarrassing to be the only one who hadn't figured it out.

By the time Gabriel got back to his dormitory it was already dark, and everyone was asleep. His double sat up in bed when he slipped in next to it.

"Everything go well?"

"About as well as expected," said the double, shrugging.

Gabriel put two fingers on its forehead and closed his eyes as it rippled and faded away. Memories flashed in front of his eyes, and Gabriel saw the ball and everything else his double had done while he was in London.

"So the ball was nice," He muttered to himself. Luna had noticed he wasn't really there, but from what Gabriel now remembered she hadn't questioned it, but merely smiled and said it was alright. Michael had looked a bit suspicious, but hadn't said anything.

There hadn't been any sort of life-changing events. Nothing that warranted immediate attention.

"Well at least it's calmer here." Still, Gabriel felt a twinge of longing for home as he changed and climbed under the covers.

* * *

Snow had fallen heavily on the grounds of Hogwarts. The heat of the greenhouses was such a stark difference it created an opaque mist of condensation on the windows which prevented anyone from seeing outside. Despite this, however, Michael came back from his outdoor Care of Magical creatures lesson in a strangely good mood.

"What's happened to you?" Gabriel asked, arching an eyebrow. "You're never this happy when you come back from your lessons with Hagrid."

"It's called care of magical creatures," Michael reminded him. "And Hagrid wasn't actually teaching today. No idea why, but you'll never guess what creatures the substitute brought in."

"You might as well tell me. I'm not going to guess."

"Unicorns."

"_What?" _Gabriel stared at Michael. "You're shitting me."

"Harry!" Hermione looked scandalized.

"Unicorns? Seriously?"

"What, you didn't know they existed?" Michael sat down at the Ravenclaw table

Gabriel rolled his eyes. "I didn't spend a lot of time studying supernatural creatures." That, and they had been just myths on the last Earth.

"What did you spend your time doing, then?" Hermione would constantly slip little questions into the conversation in an effort to find out more about Gabriel. She seemed honestly interested in learning more.

"Hiding from my brothers," Gabriel said shortly, sweeping a Potions essay into his bag. Thank Dad that was over with.

Hermione looked unsure how to respond to that, and Michael averted his eyes, glancing down at the table like he was embarrassed - or, more likely, wishing to ask more about it but afraid to take the plunge. Gabriel changed the subject before either of them could ask him to elaborate. "Why wasn't Hagrid there?"

"No idea." Michael shrugged.

"Oh, I know," muttered Hermione darkly. "It's all because of Malfoy and that hag Skeeter."

Gabriel and Michael both looked towards her. "I'm sorry?" Michael said, bewildered.

"She wrote an article about Hagrid," Hermione said angrily. "Made it sound all horrible, like he's not a good teacher at all, and just because he's half giant-"

"He's _what_?" Michael's jaw dropped open.

"Don't be like that!" Hermione snapped. "Hagrid's never done anything, just because giants have got a bad rap-"

"For what?"

"Harry, do you pay _any_ attention at all in History of Magic?"

"Does _anyone?"_

* * *

The egg, once Gabriel actually bothered to examine it, turned out to have several hinges on the bottom. The carved owl at the top turned out to twist easily, allowing the sides to fall open in three parts.

Opening it, however, was not as good an idea as it looked.

The egg shrieked like a bad death metal opera singer and Gabriel actually winced at the sound, wrenching the sides back together.

"Merlin's pants!" The boys in the dormitory were all staring at him. "What the hell was that?"

"I think the whole point is that I'm supposed to figure it out," said Gabriel dryly. His gaze dropped back down to the egg. It definitely hadn't just been screeching randomly, it had sounded almost...animalistic. "Any of you know any creatures that might shriek like that?"

* * *

Flipping through Michael's copy of Fantastic Beasts [and there were certainly more of them here than there had been on the last Earth] provided only a few ideas. It wasn't a Banshee, that was for sure. There were only so many creatures who shrieked to communicate, and fewer of those who could reasonably be defeated by a bunch of wizards barely out of school.

Well. There were the dragons to consider. Gabriel was probably the only one thinking along the lines of 'reasonable' here.

The shrieking was definitely meant to tell them where the challenge would take place, but a creature clue didn't seem to be the best way to do that...then again, they were wizards.

Gabriel had eventually decided that it was probably something on the grounds, since his double had been forced to listen to Percy Weasley complain about the mess which had been created by importing the dragons for the first task during the ball. Which meant it would take place either in the forest [other than the giant spiders he'd encountered in second year, nothing too bad, and the centaurs would leave him alone for the most part], or in the lake.

The lake was a bit of a blank spot. Other than the giant squid, there wasn't a whole lot of common knowledge on what lived in there. Therefore, the task would probably involve the lake in some way.

Also, the Forbidden forest was kind of forbidden. Dumbledore wouldn't break one of his own rules just for a tournament.

* * *

A little over a week before the second task, Gabriel got a letter in the mail.

_Dear Dad,_

_You had better appreciate this letter [if you get it at all] because I spent about five hours finding the magical district in London and figuring out how to send you a letter at your ridiculous pimple school. You're welcome. For that, and for stopping Mom from sending you a shouting letter when we found a shelf full of them._

_We're all pretty good here. They all calmed down a little when we explained it more and they realized you weren't leaving for good. Slepnir is dealing the best, and he helps out with the little guys a lot. Fenris has also stopped hiding when he has to go down for a nap. Now he just tries to outrun us.  
_

_Also, THANKS A LOT FOR NOT WARNING US ABOUT THEIR NIGHTMARES. Do you know how many times I've been woken up in the past week? Too. Many._

_Hot chocolate seems to help. I don't know if you knew that but Fenris really likes it now so we've started keeping a stockpile of it. Mom seems to like being around kids again. She's much friendlier to them than she was to you, at any rate._

_Jormungand doesn't talk a lot, but Slepnir says that's normal. I can't tell you how weird it is to be a foot and a half taller than my older brother. Very weird, in case you were wondering. Slepnir seems kind of confused too but he hasn't asked about it - I think he'd probably rather ask you.  
_

_Anyway I thought you deserved a status report and all, since you'll be gone for a while. There are some pictures Narvi took too.  
_

_Sincerely, Vali_

That was...actually really thoughtful of Vali. None of the pictures were very good quality, but they were obviously all of Slepnir, Jormungand, and Fenris in the middle of various activities, even one of them all piled together asleep. Gabriel tucked them all into his bedside drawer, which was the only place anything could be kept secret in the entire dormitory.

Slepnir...well, of course he'd be confused. He was the oldest; he definitely would have remembered when Vali and Narvi were little. To see them suddenly much older than he was would have been very confusing. But there wasn't a whole lot Gabriel could do, and especially not from this far away.

A lot of things could have gone better if Odin hadn't gone completely insane and done what he did.

* * *

Gabriel is on his way back from Muriel's room [in a last-ditch effort to see if there was a message in the egg] when it happened.

He was on the seventh floor and holding an obviously old and definitely not written in English book when loud footsteps sounded around the corner and Gabriel heard McGonagall speaking with someone.

Shit.

Gabriel spun around and tried to go the other way when he realized that the corridor was so long there was no way he'd be able to duck out of the way before McGonagall rounds the corner and if she noticed the book [which she _would_] then that would raise way to many awkward questions. The least of which being how Gabriel suddenly knew how to read German.

Gabriel spun around again but he couldn't go _towards _them because that was just stupid and he _needed somewhere to hide this freaking book. _Gabriel turned one more time to see if there were any classrooms he could duck into and he'd gone all of three feet before suddenly there was a door next to him.

Gabriel didn't question it and darted in.

The footsteps passed the door. "Yes, I know that the task is necessary, but I don't understand why they have to make them so _impossible..."_

Gabriel waited until he couldn't hear McGonagall anymore. Letting out a long breath, he turned around and nearly dropped the book on his foot.

"Holy_ shit."  
_

The room was cavernous, and definitely magical, as there was no way it could be that big without being bigger on the inside. The seventh floor ceiling did not go up that high.

Plus, there were the towering piles of everything from chairs to broomsticks that were _definitely _held up by magic, since they very nearly touched the ceiling. Gabriel was sure he must have been gaping.

Now that he looked closer, there were all sorts of things piled around the room, creating narrow paths in between piles of junk. Gabriel left the book on the floor and walked between a pile of what looked like ratty sofas and a bookcase which held a cage with some sort of mutated creature's skeleton.

The room didn't seem to have an end. It was piled high with objects that had no real value, old things that had been left behind or deemed useless.

Gabriel passed another narrow passage, paused, went back, and looked down it.

Something silver was glinting at the end, a short distance away.

Something that Gabriel was sure he recognized.

"You're _shitting _me."

How the hell had Ravenclaw's diadem ended up back at Hogwarts?

The silver diadem practically glowed as Gabriel picked it up, his Grace reacting and spiking slightly as he touched his horn for the first time in who knew how many hundreds of years. The diadem lit up blindingly and changed in his hands, silver frame and blue gems twisting together to take a familiar shape.

"Well," murmured Gabriel, holding his Horn [now properly horn-shaped] in both hands, "I definitely didn't expect this."

* * *

The second task found Gabriel standing by the lake's edge at ten AM and wondering if this was all really necessary. Frigid cold lake early in the morning, and they were going to make the champions swim through it?

At least Gabriel could do a warming charm. He was also the only champion who didn't actually need to breathe, so this would be a lot easier than he'd expected.

A whistle pierced the air and apparently that was the signal for them all to dive in. The crowd was clapping and cheering, but the noise vanished as soon as Gabriel went underwater.

The other three champions were heading deeper, farther into the lake. Gabriel rolled his eyes. Of course whatever the task was for would be at the bottom of the lake.

It was slow going, even though Gabriel did know how to swim fairly well. The lake bottom slowly fell away until Gabriel was swimming over an underwater meadow of seaweed and then a muddy, rock-strewn bottom.

Dark shadows lurked in the water, which resolved themselves into buildings as Gabriel got closer - there were mermaids, of all things, down here. And they were distinctly more fish-like than the legends might suggest. There were too many daddamn new creatures on this Earth. At least the giant squid hadn't shown up.

The merpeople didn't move to stop Gabriel, merely watched with yellow eyes as he swam past. They were singing, for whatever reason, and Gabriel caught snatches of the lyrics.

"_..To recover what we took...you're time's half gone so tarry not...lest what you seek stays here to rot..."_

Rot...but only something _alive _would rot.

Gabriel sincerely hoped that wizards were not that stupid.

There was a large statue, rough-hewn from stone, and four figures were tied to the stone merperson's tail.

Two of which were very familiar.

"Fuck!" The word came out as only a large bubble and Gabriel winced ever-so-slightly at the uncomfortable feeling of water in his lungs. Right. No talking underwater. He'd have to take care of that later.

His prime concern right now, though, was the fact that Michael and Hermione were tied to a statue way, way too far underwater and looking rather pale.

Gabriel scowled as he swam towards them. _If I have to bring anyone back to life when we reach the surface then I'm going to murder whoever thought up this task. Painfully. Maybe drawn out. _

He tried not to think about whether or not he'd be able to do so, if anyone drowned.

The angel blade flashed and Gabriel could have sworn that one of the nearby merpeople flinched away from it as he cut through the weird seaweed ropes binding Hermione and Michael to the statue. It was even slower going trying to drag them back to the surface, but it probably helped that not only were humans naturally buoyant, but Gabriel was going straight up.

Michael and Hermione woke up as soon as they broke the surface, sputtering as Gabriel took the opportunity to cough out the water he'd accidentally swallowed.

"Harry!"

"Nice to see you too." Hermione looked rather panicked, so Gabriel grabbed her arm - both to try and calm her down and to keep her up, since part of the panic was apparently caused by the fact that she didn't know how to swim very well.

Michael was blinking water out of his eyes. "You took both of us?"

"That sounds really wrong, you know."

Michael laughed and then coughed as a wave caught them suddenly.

"Let's get back to shore," Hermione said quickly. "I don't like being out this deep."

* * *

It turned out that Hermione was a perfectly capable swimmer once they reached water less than half a mile deep. All three of them were quickly pulled onto shore once they got close enough, and Madam Pomfrey managed to wrap all three of them in at least three blankets apiece. Gabriel did, however, manage to distract her before she shoved the weird smoke potion down his throat.

Fleur was already there, bearing the marks of some sort of attack that must have turned her back, since of the two people that had been brought back Gabriel had 'rescued' both of them. Cedric and Krum both turned up later, at almost the same time - Cedric was carrying someone Gabriel faintly recognized as the girl he'd taken to the Yule ball, while Krum was holding the smaller silver-haired girl who looked almost identical to Fleur.

The merpeople had poked their heads above the water, swimming close to the shoreline. Dumbledore had bent low to the water and appeared to be talking to them in the same screechy manner that the egg had screamed in, though at a considerably lower volume.

The judges eventually gave out points, but Gabriel was more preoccupied with the way Dumbledore kept side-eyeing him when he thought Gabriel wasn't looking. The merpeople obviously would have noticed that Gabriel wasn't at all human, and he didn't want to think about what they might have told Dumbledore.

* * *

There was something very odd going on. Gabriel hadn't noticed it previously - he never really paid attention to either Snape or Karkaroff - and yet both men in question had some very strange magic about them.

Forgoing the usual means of going on autopilot during potions, Gabriel took the time to study Snape. The magic in question was a sort of dark blot, curled over his left forearm - if there was any shape to it, Gabriel couldn't make it out. The same went for Karkaroff, and the longer Gabriel paid attention, the darker and thicker the magic seemed to get.

Gabriel didn't waste time trying to figure it out, but he certainly didn't ignore it; the opposite, in fact. He kept a close eye on both of them, because magic that created an aura that dark and smokelike certainly wasn't anything good.

* * *

The only noteworthy incident after that took place a week or two after the second task. Hermione [who by now was becoming a regular at the Ravenclaw table] kept watching the ceiling as the usual rush of morning owls flew in.

"What are you looking at?" Michael asked.

"I've taken out a subscription to the Daily Prophet," Hermione said. "I'm tired of finding out everything from the Slytherins."

"Everything?" Gabriel asked skeptically as a gray owl soared towards Hermione, who was frowning at it.

"That owl hasn't got a newspaper," Michael noted as the gray one came closer. It landed on the table and was soon joined by even more, a whole group of them jostling around.

"What on Earth?" Hermione asked, bewildered.

"How many subscriptions did you take out, exactly?" Michael questioned as yet another owl landed on the table. Hermione snatched a letter from one of the owls and read it with an ever-increasing expression of disgust.

"Oh, really!"

"What?" Gabriel made to grab the letter but Hermione snatched it away.

"It's nothing," she said hurriedly, but her face had turned red. Hermione reached for another letter, as the owls were still jostling for attention. "Oh, these are all the same-"

"What is this about?" Gabriel asked again, and Michael opened nir mouth to answer just as Hermione shouted out.

"Ouch!"

Both Gabriel and Michael turned towards her immediately. The envelope Hermione had just opened was full of some sort of viscous yellow liquid, which had poured out over her hands, which were now so covered in thick sores that it looked like she was wearing gloves.

"Bloody hell!" Michael had jumped back in nir seat. "You'd better go to the hospital wing!"

"Ow," Hermione got out of her seat gingerly, doing her best not to use her hands. Gabriel stood up as well and followed her out of the hall - he could hear Michael following, if the extra set of footsteps was anything to go by.

"Hermione!" Gabriel called before she could go very far. "Wait up!" She paused at the foot of the marble staircase which led out of the entrance hall.

"What?" She asked, holding her hands close to her chest.

"Let me see." Gabriel took her hands gingerly - if the smell was anything to go by, much less the reaction, it was probably quite painful.

It took only a small amount of Grace to fix. Gabriel let Hermione's hands slip out of his, and she and Michael [who had come up next to Gabriel] watched in fascination as her hands returned to normal, sores fading away and the rough texture smoothing out.

"Wow." Was all Michael said. Hermione lifted her hands up and felt them gingerly.

"It feels fine," she said in astonishment.

"Of course it does," scoffed Gabriel. "Are you doubting my abilities?"

Hermione looked back at him. "But I thought you said you were low on power."

Gabriel made a dismissive motion. "Healing doesn't take that much. I'm fine. And now, so are you. You're welcome."

That tugged a grin from Hermione. "But how does it work, though?" She questioned. "You didn't say anything, or even snap like you did in the shack last year."

"Snapping is just for dramatic effect," Gabriel said idly. "It's all about intent."

"But so is magic, and that still requires a wand-"

"Hermione." Gabriel put up a hand to stop her. "When you have been practicing magic for at least three millenia, come back and then we'll talk about its intricacies and whether or not you need a wand."

Hermione, to her credit, didn't react to the reminder of Gabriel's age - neither did Michael, who spoke up. "Magic's different than what you've got, though, isn't it?" Ne asked.

Gabriel shrugged. "Sure. Same basic principles though - weird, not totally understood power."

"I really doubt-" Hermione began.

"You know, let's save this conversation for someplace where we don't run the risk of being interrupted by a load of students at any second."

* * *

The Easter holidays were as homework-filled as usual, and instead of the usual wish to go outside instead of write essays for three hours Gabriel found himself thinking that it would be a lot better if people could go home for Easter as well. Vali had sent several more letters, but it was hardly a decent substitute.

Hermione had finally explained the reason for the hate mail - Skeeter had published an article about her after Hermione had confronted her about another article Skeeter had published about Hagrid.

"I was just angry," Hermione muttered when Gabriel had finished the article [and taken the time to mentally compose something good to do to Skeeter]. "She's such a hag, though, I wonder how she even got some of the information..."

"What?" Gabriel looked across the library table at Hermione, having been distracted from the possible merits of whether he was able create another Trickster universe like the TV one he'd made for the Winchesters, at such low power as he was now.

"Well..." Hermione hesitated. "Just...some of the things in that article...there was no way she could have known."

"Like what?" Gabriel picked the article back up. Honestly, if he'd written something like this he'd probably be laughing his ass off. Except if he'd written it, it would be about someone who deserved to have something horrible happen to them.

"Well-" Hermione was actually blushing. "It's just - how did she find out that Viktor invited me to visit him over the summer?"

"Seriously?" Gabriel dropped the magazine, looking at her in disbelief. "He took you to the ball, now you're arranging summer plans?"

"It's just an invitation," Hermione protested.

"Are you going to accept?"

"Maybe." Hermione frowned in thought. "I don't know. My parents and I usually go somewhere over the summer, and I don't really get to see them any other time."

"Well, if you do accept, let me know. I'll send you condoms."

"_Harry!"_ Gabriel laughed as he dodged the book Hermione actually threw at him. She was bright red. "We wouldn't be doing _that!"_

* * *

Gabriel woke up abruptly, gasping for breath [even though he didn't need it] and the feeling of burning pain in his lower wings.

He had to clench his mouth shut to prevent himself making a noise, because it felt like the third pair were being slowly singed off and there was something very, very wrong, because even on this Earth he could always hear the Host in the back of his mind, his siblings talking and ordering others around but now his wings were burning and everything was

absolutely

completely

horribly

silent.

"Harry?" Gabriel winced. There was no way he could stay in the dorms right now. Bracing himself, Gabriel used his almost-working pair of wings and collapsed to the ground of an abandoned classroom with a wordless scream.

He didn't know how long he lay there but it felt like years before his wings stopped feeling like they were on fire. Gabriel tried to turn over and immediately flopped back onto his back.

"Aargh..."

He still felt sore and Gabriel didn't think he was going to be moving anytime soon. Gabriel stayed on his back despite the pain because there was no way he was lying on his stomach and staring at the charred outline of the pair of wings that had just burned themselves off.

Gabriel wrenched his mind away from self-pity. _Think, _he told himself viciously. _Distract yourself. What could have caused this?_

There was, of course, only one possible answer.

The only way he could have lost a pair of wings like that - as they were representations of his power - and the only way every single angel in Heaven could have gone silent at the exact same time would have been if they had all Fallen at once, and the gates shut behind them.

Gabriel didn't want to think of the implications. If Heaven had been closed, then even if he did get back to full power he's still only have about half [maybe a tiny bit more] of what he used originally. It was almost lucky he hadn't been hiding out in Heaven [which had been his original plan before the whole Harry Potter mess came about] because then he'd have lost all six wings on the way down to Earth.

_Balthazar. _Gabriel suddenly wondered what had happened to him. Even if he hadn't been in Heaven, Balthazar would have undoubtedly lost his wings - he only had two, after all. Would he be able to get back to the house in London?

A fresh wave of pain on his lower back when he shifted unconsciously successfully distracted Gabriel from thinking about his brother, changing his train of thought to _shit that hurts._

If the Winchesters were involved in this Gabriel was going to make them _wish _they were back at the Mystery Spot.

* * *

**Yeah, I'm going to end it there.**

**According to the Supernatural timeline, the Fall in season 8 took place on May 21st, 2013. As stated earlier in the story, third year took place in 2011. That was in November. Of course, in January the year would turn to 2012, and as it's now May of fourth year another new year would have taken place, making the timeline for this chapter [except for the very beginning] all take place in 2013.**

**Timelines are confusing. I'm sorry if you don't understand because I don't really either.**

**Read and review!**


	34. The Maze and A Visitor or Two

**The general consensus from you guys seems to be 'oh no Gabriel!' Good to see my writing has paid off. I'm sure you're all looking forward to the third task, so I won't waste any more time!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter**

* * *

Gabriel missed an entire day's worth of classes while he hid in the abandoned classroom to recover from the loss of two of his wings. He managed to trick everyone into thinking he'd been there, since Gabriel definitely didn't have the energy for another double, much less to even leave the room until late that night.

If anyone stumbled into that room on accident, if would be very difficult for them to figure out how a charred outline of a pair of wings had been singed into the floor and walls, nearly reaching the ceiling. Gabriel knew that the burn marks wouldn't go away anytime soon.

Gabriel barely paid attention to any of his classes because the newfound silence in his head was deafening and he didn't understand how anyone _coped _with only their own thoughts.

Of course, humans had never needed to get used to the sound of hundreds of people talking in the back of their mind for billions of years.

It was only a week later when Gabriel was held back after Charms so Flitwick could tell him to go down to the Quidditch pitch at nine that night to be informed about the third task. The other three champions were already there when Gabriel arrived, and the pitch was overgrown with large hedges instead of the usual cropped grass turf.

Bagman was standing there as well and Gabriel almost groaned out loud - of course they had to send the most annoying judge to tell them what was going on.

"I suppose you all can guess what we have here?" He asked, grinning.

"Maze," Krum said eventually, after a long silence.

"Exactly!" said Bagman, overly cheerfully. "The third task is fairly straightforward - the Triwizard Cup will be placed in the center. Your job is to get to it first for full marks."

"We simply have to get through the maze?" Fleur asked, her astonishment somewhat camouflaged by her accent.

"Oh, there will be obstacles." Bagman was practically bouncing. "Hagrid is providing a number of creatures..." Wonderful. Exactly what Gabriel wanted to do. "There will be spells that need to be broken...all sorts of things, you know. The champion who is leading in points will enter first." Bagman grinned at Cedric. "Then Mr. Potter, then Mr. Krum, then Ms. Delacour. But you'll all have a fighting chance, depending on how well you get past the creatures. Should be fun, eh?"

No one answered. Gabriel wondered what Bagman's definition of 'fun' was.

"Well...if you haven't got any questions, we might as well head back up to the castle...it's a bit chilly."

Gabriel didn't get very far before there was a tap on his shoulder.

"What." Gabriel said shortly.

"Could I have a word?" Krum's accent was even thicker than Fleur's.

"Fine." Make it quick, was the unspoken addition, and Krum seemed to notice even if Gabriel didn't say anything.

"I want to know what is between you and Hermione." He pronounced Hermione's name very oddly.

"Excuse me?" Gabriel actually turned around. Krum was actually glaring at him and Gabriel was _really _not in the mood for this. "Look, I'm not Hermione's boyfriend or whatever bullshit that magazine published. I didn't think you read gossip rags." Spinning around, Gabriel ignored Krum and went straight back up towards the school.

Hermione's boyfriend. Honestly. It was like no one even knew them.

* * *

After thinking over it a bit harder and waiting a week, Gabriel figured out something very important.

One, using what the Winchesters had dubbed 'angel radio' when cut off from Heaven was a bit more difficult than it looked.

Two, angel radio had not been broken completely - his siblings, like he was, were figuring out how to use it again. It took more energy, and the conversations were barely whispers, but Gabriel was not completely marooned.

_Where am I?_

_Hello, can anyone hear me? What's happened? _

_Why are we on Earth?_

_Where is Castiel?_

_What happened?_

_Heaven's been closed._

_But how?_

_Who closed the gates?_

_Who survived the Fall?_

* * *

Hermione and Michael cornered him several days later in the Ravenclaw dormitories. Gabriel wasn't entirely sure how Hermione had even gotten in there. Michael must have let her in.

"Alright," Hermione said severely. "What's going on?"

"Who says anything's going on?" Gabriel feigned innocence.

"Don't play dumb," Michael said heatedly. "You've been distant all year and especially after Christmas break. And a week ago you started acting all weird and zoning out a lot. Angel or not, we're your _friends, _Harry."

"Oh, so this is what, and intervention?" Gabriel snapped back.

"We're worried about you!" Hermione burst out. "You can tell us things, you know!"

"Oh, really?" Gabriel asked sarcastically.

_"Yes,"_ Michael stressed the word so that ne was practically shouting it. "What was the point of explaining about you being an angel if you're still going to keep secrets?"

"I'm allowed to keep some things to myself!" There was a sudden murmur through angel radio and Gabriel frowned, bringing up a hand to the side of his head almost unconsciously.

"What are you-"

"Ssshhh!" Gabriel held out a finger towards Hermione as he concentrated on the message. He didn't recognize who was talking, but he could make out the words clearly enough.

_It was Metatron! _

Metatron? That upstart little scribe? Gabriel had almost forgotten about him.

_He's responsible for this - he and Castiel made some sort of spell which cast us out!_

_What about Naomi? She was in charge!  
_

_She hasn't responded to any calls - she either died in the fall or was killed prior._

_Are there any confirmed casualties?_

_Ezekiel is unresponsive. So are many others. Naomi's deputy Nathaniel is dead as well.  
_

_Hael has been killed, _put in another voice. _I know for a fact she survived the Fall, but I have been unable to contact her._

_And Castiel?_

_We attempted to discover his location from Dean Winchester. So far, we've been unsuccessful. The two who were sent after him have not responded since then._

_Do you think Castiel killed Hael?_

_If they were in the same area, it's possible. But we don't know where either of them are._

_What about those of us who have no vessels?_

_Bartholomew is organizing something. He'll have vessels for us eventually. _Bartholomew? He was barely a seraph.

_I have heard that Malachi is amassing his own following._

_Malachi? He's an anarchist. You could do better than that._

_What do we do about Metatron?_

Gabriel had heard enough. He pulled away from the conversation and looked back at Hermione and Michael.

"Who were you listening to?" Michael asked.

"Who said I was listening to anything?"

"You looked like you were. Or maybe seeing something." Hermione was way too observant.

Gabriel put his face in his hands and let out a long breath. "You're going to want to sit down."

Hermione took a seat on the bed, next to Gabriel - he must have sat down while he was listening. Michael pulled over a chair and looked at Gabriel expectantly.

"Something happened," Gabriel began. "With my family. The angel side, I mean."

"What?"

"I'm not telling you that. And it's not because I don't trust you-" Gabriel held up a hand to forestall any protests. "-But it's because if my siblings do find out I'm here and decide they need information, they wouldn't hesitate to go after you."

"We can protect ourselves," Michael objected.

"I'm not underestimating you. If anything, I'm underestimating my siblings." Gabriel snapped. "You have to understand - most of them wouldn't think twice at killing you or anyone in this school. It would be like you stepping on an ant, except in their case the ant can yell and is significantly smarter."

Hermione looked rather pale after this, but she cleared her throat and spoke. "This...thing that happened," she said carefully. "What did it do?"

"Something happened upstairs - in Heaven, I mean. My siblings are...mostly panicking. Basically, we've all been cut off from the main power source and no one can go back up," Gabriel explained. "Luckily, none of them landed here, as far as I can tell, or we'd be in a lot more trouble."

"So what are you going to do about it?" Michael asked, leaning forward slightly.

Gabriel shrugged. "There's not much I _can_ do. I'm stuck at Hogwarts for now, and I still don't really know what's going on, since all the information I'm getting is from eavesdropping on other conversations."

"Is that what you were listening to? But I didn't hear anything." Hermione furrowed her brow thoughtfully.

"It's a mental connection - I've heard it called 'angel radio'." Gabriel told them. "Basically, I can hear what any angel is broadcasting over it whenever I like."

"So you hear your siblings talking all the time?" Michael looked thoughtful. "Sounds like it could be pretty useful, if you needed to talk to them from far away. No Floo or anything, at least."

"Yeah, I guess," Gabriel agreed. That was its original use, after all - so that all members of the Host could keep in contact with each other at all times.

"Harry-" Hermione suddenly looked worried. "What happens when you do know what happened?"

* * *

Once Gabriel had reassured Hermione and Michael that no, he was not going to vanish as soon as he figured out what had happened, they were willing enough to leave the subject alone.

Gabriel, meanwhile, was enjoying not having to study for exams he didn't really need to take and the days until the third task went by rather quickly. The day of the task, however, Flitwick approached him at the Ravenclaw table during breakfast.

"Mr. Potter?"

Gabriel and Michael both looked up, wondering why Flitwick had come down. "Yeah?" Gabriel asked.

"The champions will be congregating in the chamber off the Hall after breakfast," Flitwick informed him.

"I thought the task wasn't till tonight."

"I'm aware of that! The champions' families are invited to watch the final task, you know. This is an opportunity for the champions to greet them!" Flitwick continued on to the staff table, Gabriel staring after them.

"But I thought you said-" Michael began.

"Believe me, I'm just as confused as you are." Had Balthazar shown up? "Let's just hope it's not my brother." A brief thought of Sigyn popped into Gabriel's head, but he dismissed it - Sigyn probably wouldn't bother to come to his funeral if he died.

Michael glanced over at him. "The brother that you live with?"

"Yeah."

"I thought you said that he was okay."

"I can deal with him, but I don't think Hogwarts will be able to."

The Great Hall emptied around Gabriel as he stood to make his way into the side chamber they had directed the champions into on Halloween. Cedric and Fleur were walking towards it as well, Krum slouching behind them. Utterly bewildered, Gabriel nodded at Cedric as he held the door open. Who would have come to see him?

Cedric was talking to an older couple just inside the door, and Krum was deep in a conversation in rapid-fire Bulgarian with someone who looked very similar. Gabriel nearly gaped when he noticed the pair standing by the fireplace.

"Surprise," said Vali, grinning.

"Didn't think anyone would show up, did you?" Narvi had an identical grin.

"I only learned about it five minutes ago," said Gabriel, grinning despite himself. "What are you doing here?" There was no way Sigyn had approved of this.

"We got the invitation and thought we'd come." Vali leaned closer. "Just so you know, according to everyone else we're cousins on your aunt's side."

"This school looks pretty cool, though," Narvi interrupted, looking around at the paintings. The woman in the one nearest to them giggled. "Mind giving us a tour?"

"Do we need the fancy uniform?" Vali teased.

"Very funny," Gabriel said with no real heat. "Do you want to be shown around or not?"

They made their way out of the door of the chamber again and back into the great hall. Vali tilted his head back to view the ceiling and whistled. "Impressive!"

"I guess."

"You guess?" Narvi asked incredulously.

"It looses the shine when you're sitting under it every day for four years."

They were similarly interested by the Whomping Willow [Vali nearly broke his ribs when they decided to try and test its reflexes before Gabriel hauled them both away] and inspected the moving paintings, trying to figure out the spells which animated them. Narvi was also very willing to give updates on the kids.

"Mom's pretty good with them," he said as they walked up one of the flights of staircases. "Fenris is doing pretty well, and like we said Slepnir helps a - whoa!" The staircase had abruptly shifted under their feet, swinging around to reach a different landing.

"Did I mention they move?" Gabriel asked nonchalantly, continuing to climb upwards. Vali shook his head and let go of the railing.

"This place is insane."

"I think it's less the school and more the wizards who built it."

They went back to the great hall in time for lunch, where Michael and Hermione were both already waiting, this time at the Gryffindor table.

"Hey." Gabriel slid in next to them. Hermione, and Ron [who was sitting next to her] looked up at Vali and Narvi.

"Who're they?" Hermione asked.

"Technically cousins. Distant ones, though."

"I'm Neil," Narvi said. "This is my brother, Vincent."

Gabriel internally raised his eyebrows at the names, but didn't say anything, and merely moved to make room on the bench.

"This isn't your table," said Vail, glancing down at Gabriel's bronze and blue tie but sitting down anyway.

"It's hers," said Gabriel, poking a thumb towards Hermione. "This is Hermione, by the way, and that's Michael. And that's Ron."

"Hello," said Michael, watching the twins curiously.

"Friends of yours?" Narvi asked, shoving Vali over with his foot before taking a seat.

"Yes," Gabriel said, rolling his eyes. "Did you think I just chose a seat randomly?"

"Well, you never know." Vali rested his chin on one hand. "So you're the guys who put up with my cousin." There was the tiniest of pauses before the last word, but Vali wasn't Gabriel's son for nothing. Gabriel doubted that even Hermione noticed.

"I'd say we do more than just put up with him," said Hermione. "Are you twins?"

"Would we be anything else?" Vali and Narvi were exactly identical, the only difference being that Narvi's hair was much shorter and the ends looked much blonder than their usual reddish brown.

"Well - I suppose not-"

"Do my ears deceive me-"

"Or is there another pair of twins in the vicinity?"

Fred and George were leaning over the table with huge grins.

"No." Gabriel said immediately.

* * *

Sirius showed up just after lunch, and he seemed rather surprised to see Vali and Narvi - obviously, he hadn't expected anyone else to show up for Gabriel.

"Who're they?" Sirius asked. "Er, sorry I'm late. Got held up."

"It's fine. These are my cousins on my uncle's side - you know, the uncle I stay with."

"Right." Sirius held out his hand. "Nice to meet you."

"You too." Vali accepted it. "I'm Vincent, this is my brother Neil - unfortunately our father couldn't make it." Gabriel had to try very hard not to laugh, both at the idea that Balthazar was their father and the fact that he was standing maybe six inches away from Vali.

There was a reason Loki had been the god of Lies. They were hilarious, in the proper situation.

It turned out that Vali and Narvi got along well with Sirius [maybe a little too well] and the evening sped by until Gabriel was heading down to the Quidditch pitch that night with the twins.

"Good luck, though I don't think you'll need it." Vali said as they got closer. "What is this, a load of hedges? A maze? Doesn't seem like much of a spectator sport unless they've got some sort of screen that lets you see all the champions."

"I doubt it." Narvi grinned at Gabriel. "I think we should be wishing the other champions good luck, unless they've magically discovered who they're up against."

"Shut up," Gabriel said affectionately. "You'd better go up to the stands, they'll think you're giving me last minute advice."

Vali and Narvi did so, and Gabriel approached the pitch. There was a gap in front where the other three champions were already waiting. Several teachers, all wearing luminous red stars in various locations, were apparently going to be patrolling the maze in case someone needed rescuing.

Well, didn't that bode well for what they'd be facing.

Cedric went in first, once the stands had filled up and Bagman had made whatever announcements needed to be made. They waited a minute and then Gabriel, who was in second for some reason, entered the maze.

It was gloomy, the hedges stretching up on either side and fading into darkness as the path led on. Obviously an intimidation technique, or perhaps a coincidence, but the height of the hedges and the timing of the task [the sky was already fading to a dark cobalt blue] made Gabriel wonder whether it hadn't been on purpose.

The path Gabriel chose was almost unnervingly clear of any obstacles. He was sure that he should have encountered _something _by now; wasn't the maze supposed to be challenging?

It was nearly half an hour before he encountered anything.

Gabriel rounded the corner and ran straight into his brother.

_What is Lucifer doing here I thought he was locked in the cage. _Gabriel almost froze, until he realized that Lucifer had stumbled backwards from the collision.

"Hold on, you're a Boggart! Riddikulus!" Not-Lucifer grew a mustache which kept growing and buried him in hair as Gabriel darted past.

His wand remained by his side most of the time, since even in the gloom Gabriel could still tell when he was about to crash into a hedge or where the path went. The maze was still, for the most part, oddly empty of anything save Gabriel.

Someone screamed.

Gabriel whirled around, but it had already stopped. It was coming from the left, but Gabriel had no idea of how far - or even who had screamed. Had someone lost to whatever creatures were supposedly in here?

Nothing else broke the silence, and as far as Gabriel could see, there were no red sparks sent up. Slightly more warily, he continued on.

The maze seemed even quieter now, but with a more ominous air. Gabriel could hear distant noise and the occasional rustle of the hedges, but nothing else approached him.

Something was off. There was no way he was just being ignored by everything in the maze...unless whatever creatures were in here were sentient enough to know to go the other way.

Gabriel doubted that.

* * *

"What are you doing? What the _hell _are you doing?"

Gabriel glanced to the side when that got yelled. It was Cedric - he must have been on a path right next to Gabriel's.

"Crucio!"

Holy shit.

The air was full of screams as the spell took affect and was it _seriously _that important for them to win this? Gabriel hesitated in leaping to the rescue, because he _could _make off for the trophy while they were both_...busy..._

What the hell.

Gabriel blasted a hole through the hedge, and as the spell caught whoever was torturing Cedric his yells abruptly died out. Gabriel leaped through the hole and nearly landed on Cedric, who was lying on the ground. Krum was slumped against the hedges on the other side, obviously unconscious.

"Thanks," gasped Cedric. "I don't...I didn't think he'd...do something like that. I thought he was alright."

"He probably got Fleur," Gabriel muttered, half to himself. "She must have been the one who screamed earlier."

Cedric looked rather pale. He glanced down at Krum. "Should we just leave him here?"

"He'll be fine." Gabriel leaned over Krum on the pretense of seeing if he was hurt and put a hand on his forehead. There was definitely a trace of something...most likely the Imperius Curse, but the trace had faded so that Gabriel couldn't tell who had cast it. "See you."

Gabriel stood up and took off down the path. He heard Cedric behind him a few moments later, and when he glanced up there were red sparks hovering in the air to mark where Krum had fallen.

The kid was too nice for his own good.

* * *

Spiders. Of course, they'd put some of the giant spiders from the forest inside the maze. Why should Gabriel have expected anything else. There had been a sphinx, for Christ's sake.

Admittedly, the behemoth had taken him by surprise as he and Cedric sprinted towards the cup. Cedric was forced away from the plinth and the shiny blue trophy as Gabriel forced the spider to drop him and wondered how he could play off his leg miraculously becoming unbroken once Cedric looked closer and realized it was no longer injured.

"Stupefy!" The spider jerked backwards from the force of both spells - Cedric had fired at the same time - and fell over, slumping into one of the other paths which led to the center.

Gabriel leaped to his feet and saw Cedric leap for the cup.

_Oh hell no he's not beating me._

Their hands closed around it at the same time.

* * *

**Mwahahahaha. Yes, I'm really going to end it there. It will give you guys some incentive to review! And besides, this chapter is almost four thousand words. That's enough for one helping.**

**Read and review, please!**


	35. The Graveyard and the Aftermath

**ARE YOU READY FOR THIS**

**I'll answer that. No, you're not. You really are not. I doubt ANY of you were expecting this to happen. Let me know if I was right.  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter**

* * *

Gabriel and Cedric hit the ground with a thump and a few muffled curses.

"What the hell was that?" Gabriel demanded, rolling over and leaping back onto his feet.

"It must have been a portkey," Cedric said, glancing around. They were in some sort of cemetery, definitely nowhere near Hogwarts as the mountains which surrounded the school had vanished.

"Great," Gabriel muttered. "This task is even crazier than I thought."

"I don't think this is part of the task."

"Oh, well, that's _much _better."

The graveyard looked like it had come straight from the set of a bad horror movie. Wisps of fog, huge tree, ominous gravestones, that one cliche grave with a robed figure carrying a scythe - it was all there. There was even a house standing alone on the crest of a nearby hill, as if to show that they were far away from the town.

"Wands out, d'you reckon?" Cedric asked nervously, but Gabriel didn't answer. They were still in Britain, that much he could figure out - it was unlikely the 'portkey' [whatever the hell that was] had managed to take them overseas - but the graveyard didn't offer many clues as to their location.

Something crunched and both of them whirled around, Cedric brandishing his wand. There was a short, robed figure making their way towards them slowly, stopping next to the grave with the statue. It walked like it was holding something in both arms, some sort of bundle which had become slightly easier to see as the figure had come closer. Was it a folded pair of robes? A baby? It was hard to tell.

They stood there for several moments, just staring at each other. The figure, whose hood was pulled up so that their face fell into shadow, didn't make any move for a wand or any other weapon or move at all.

And then a high, cold voice spoke from the vicinity of the bundle.

"_Kill the spare."_

Gabriel yanked Cedric to the side and Cedric promptly tripped backwards, sending them both to the ground and Gabriel directly into the path of the green spell.

Shit.

* * *

"Okay," Gabriel said aloud, sending a look at the figure standing opposite him in the blank white landscape. "There is no way that spell actually worked. Or that this is _at all _a coincidence."

"What makes you say that?" asked the figure mildly. "Perhaps you're just rather unfortunate."

"Okay," said Gabriel skeptically, "So you're saying that Death just _happened _to be in the area the exact same time that I get hit with a curse like that. Plus, it wouldn't actually affect me."

Death nodded. "I may have influenced Peter a bit, but it most likely would have happened all the same. I'm surprised you tried to save Cedric."

"He's seventeen," scoffed Gabriel. "He's still a kid, really. So what do you want?"

"How rude," Death observed. "You'd think I'd interrupted something important. Don't worry, Gabriel, I'm not here to reap you."

"Then what did you want to talk so desperately for?" Gabriel frowned at the white area they were in. "And did you really have to borrow my mind to do it?"

"Well, I'm certainly not going to let you inside mine." Death walked forward, cane swinging. He was wearing the same suit he'd been in last time Gabriel had seen him, which didn't make a whole lot of sense considering suits hadn't actually been invented back then. "And it's come to my attention that you have something of mine."

"I what?" Gabriel raised his eyebrow. "I think I would have noticed owning something of yours."

"That cloak of yours is rather impressive, is it not?"

Gabriel paused. "Well. That explains a lot."

"Indeed. Have you heard of the Tales of Beedle the Bard?"

"I haven't read them, if that's what you're asking."

"Pity. Read them later. You'll know which one I mean. And I'd like my cloak back."

"Okay, except I kind of need it. I don't have a lot of power to waste on invisibility anymore, which you know already, don't you?"

Death gave an exaggerated sigh. "Yes. I do know. Which is why I'm willing to offer something in return, as long as you return to me the cloak and two other items."

Gabriel watched Death thoughtfully. Well, it wasn't like the Horseman didn't keep his word. "I don't have it on me at the moment."

"I know you don't. I will arrive later to retrieve it."

"What's your return offer?"

Death inclined his head, as if gesturing to something. "I believe there is someone who's been wanting to speak to you."

He vanished as Gabriel turned around. There was another person, this one looking barely as old as Fenris, and one who Gabriel recognized immediately.

He _had _seen the same face staring back from the mirror for over fourteen years, after all.

"Hello," said Harry Potter.

Gabriel was almost too surprised to answer. "Shouldn't you be younger?" he finally asked. He distinctly remembered Harry being a baby, not two or three years old.

"I was sharing a mind with you for months," Harry said. "My mind grew up - I guess my soul got affected to."

_What was left of it. _"How did you managed to convince Death to bring me here to talk?"

"He was the one who came and got me," Harry replied, shrugging. "He said I was interesting and when I asked about you he got all weird like he'd remembered something."

_The cloak - he realized that I had it and that he could use Harry as a bartering tool. But for what? Did he think I desperately wanted a conversation with my vessel's soul?_

"I wanted to talk to you because I thought a lot about it," Harry interrupted Gabriel's thoughts. "And I wanted to be and I was at first, but...I'm not mad at you."

What?

"I just..." Harry fidgeted uncomfortably in place, like he was embarrassed. "At first I was mad 'cause it was my body and you took it...but then I found out that you didn't really have a choice in it either, and I guess...I changed my mind. So you can still use my body, if you want, since I can't anymore."

It took Gabriel a moment to realize the magnitude of that simple statement.

"Oh," he breathed, while Harry watched curiously. So _that _was why Death had thought the conversation worth exchanging for his invisibility cloak.

Gabriel looked back at Harry. "Thank you," he said sincerely. Harry obviously didn't know the effect of his words, but he nodded anyway. The white surroundings and Harry began to bleed away, trails of darkness shooting through them until Gabriel found himself flat on his back, back in the graveyard and staring up at the sky.

Gabriel closed his eyes again quickly. If he had been out for long, there was no need to announce his return to the living immediately. Instead, he listened for a trace of what was going on.

Someone was talking, a low voice, moving around - whoever it was, they must have been walking around as they spoke. Gabriel didn't recognize the voice. There was also someone sobbing faintly in the background - again, an unrecognizable person.

Gabriel, however, was far more interested in the power slowly leaking back into him. It was as though a dam had been removed and everything he'd lost that Halloween had come rushing back to him, power welling up in the half-empty space where his Grace rested.

Consent is a hell of a thing. And even if it as a whole was a little reduced - he was still cut off from Heaven, after all - Gabriel wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Opening his eyes slightly revealed an interesting sight. He was lying to the side of a group of black-robed figures, all who had the same black magic on their forearms as Snape and Karkaroff - except now it was much darker, roiling nearly up to their elbow and black as pitch. The man in the middle was almost completely black, comparable to a demon - and his physical appearance wasn't much better.

He didn't even have a nose, for Dad's sake.

But his soul - oh, that was interesting. Darker than the magic which swallowed him, and oddly familiar...

And if Gabriel wasn't mistaken, he was now in the presence of Voldemort and his Death whatevers.

Cedric, pale and gagged, was tied to the ornate tombstone several feet away. He looked absolutely terrified, but for the moment Voldemort wasn't paying him any attention. Cedric also hadn't noticed Gabriel quite yet.

Gabriel let a grin creep across his face. He might be missing two of them, but the remaining four wings now worked perfectly.

With little more than a rustle Gabriel vanished and landed invisibly behind the tombstone Cedric was tied to. A single touch [and _oh _it was good to be back] severed the ropes and Gabriel was quick to fly Cedric to the other side of the graveyard before anyone noticed.

If anything, this scared Cedric even more once Gabriel stopped being invisible. "Harry - but you-"

Gabriel put a finger to his lips and winked, silencing Cedric. He summoned the portkey, which was still active with magic, and both it and Cedric vanished as soon as they collided.

Voldemort was still monologuing, but at that moment he happened to turn around and finally figure out that Gabriel had vanished.

Gabriel, who had turned himself invisible again, grinned as he watched the snakelike man scream at his followers. They really were idiots.

"Find him!" Voldemort screamed. "The boy was _dead! _He could not have been taken far!"

"Well, wrong on both counts, then, since I wasn't taken anywhere." said Gabriel conversationally, stepping forward and uncloaking himself to pretend he'd been hiding behind one of the tombstones. Every one of the robed figures whipped around to face him, revealing that Voldemort had red eyes and the rest of them wore silver masks.

As if that would protect their identity from Gabriel. He'd known who every one of them was as soon as he got a look at their souls.

"Harry Potter," Voldemort hissed. "Back from the dead."

"Voldemort."

A shiver went around the group. Wow, even his followers didn't like using his name? Wimps.

"So," Voldemort said softly. "You survived once again...but no matter...I have already returned...and whatever protections guard you will be useless, with your blood used to aid in my revival..."

What?

Gabriel's eyes flickered down, glancing over himself, and he finally noticed a long cut in his robes over the arm. Shit. Who knew what effects that might have.

Hopefully negative ones, considering the state of the guy's soul.

"But you," Voldemort continued, "There is something interesting about you. When I possessed Quirrel, you faced me with unnatural power...power which is now useless against me."

"I doubt that." Gabriel replied, spinning his wand in one hand.

"Why don't we see? _Crucio!"_

The Cruciatus curse turned out to be similar to the Imperius - in this case, it tricked the mind into thinking that the person was in intense pain. Gabriel, like with the Imperius, ignored the message.

"Nice trick," Gabriel said. "But I think mine is better."

Voldemort narrowly avoided the spell Gabriel sent out, and it hit a random death eater instead, knocking him out and sending his mask askew. He sent one in return which Gabriel smacked away and back towards him.

"You'll have to do better than that," Gabriel taunted, then ducked to avoid a stray spell from one of Voldemort's minions. "Rude!" A simple snap had them all crumpling to the ground.

Voldemort stared in shock. "You would kill so easily?"

"They're not dead, Einstein," Gabriel said snarkily. He really couldn't be bothered to waste Grace on those morons, and it was much easier to just knock them out. His Grace was still returning bit by bit, so why make the process even slower? He shot off another spell towards Voldemort, who dodged it easily.

Snarling, Voldemort sent back a barrage of spells, all soaring towards Gabriel.

_Snap._

Every one of the beams of light froze in place, the closest one a few inches in front of Gabriel. He arched one eyebrow and snapped again, shattering the spells into tiny shards of light which faded almost immediately.

There was a sharp crack, and Voldemort vanished in a whirl of robes. Gabriel scowled at the place Voldemort had just been standing. "Coward."

The ground felt very strange. Gabriel bounced on his heels slightly before looking down and realizing he was standing on one of the unconscious death eaters. "Ah. My mistake." Gabriel looked around the graveyard again.

"I should probably head back to Hogwarts." He mused, and vanished with a faint fluttering sound.

* * *

When he returned to Hogwarts, Gabriel did _not_ show up in a dramatic light show that could be reasonably passed off as accidental magic.

What he did do was find Dumbledore and eavesdrop on the conversation, which was being held in Moody's office. Apparently, the Moody who had been teaching all year was an imposter in Voldemort's service. That explained why he had the magic on his arm too, and now that Gabriel got a look at the actual tattoo he saw that it was a black version of the symbol which had been shot up at the World Cup.

Gabriel's eyes narrowed when the man - who was named Barty Crouch, the son of the man who was supposed to be a triwizard judge and was now apparently dead - confessed that he had been the one to enter Gabriel's name. He admitted to quite a number of other things as well, under influence of some sort of truth potion, the least of which was murdering his father. Retribution, coming up as soon as the teachers left the room.

The second thing he did [after finishing with Barty] was find Vali and Narvi, who were in the hospital wing interrogating Cedric. By now Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Snape had showed up, and Hermione and Michael were there as well, no doubt trying to get answers as to what had happened to Gabriel. There were two adults Gabriel recognized from earlier that day as Cedric's parents. Even Sirius and Remus had shown up, probably in the same group as Hermione and Michael.

"What do you mean, you don't know what happened to him?" Michael demanded of a still-pale Cedric. Madam Pomfrey looked outraged.

"Enough!" She practically yelled, shooing everyone farther away from Cedric's bed. "I will not have you interrogating my patient any longer!"

"So we're not allowed to try and find out what happened?" Narvi demanded.

"Madam Pomfrey-" Dumbledore raised his hand placatingly. "If I thought giving Mr. Diggory a night to recover would help dull the horror of what had happened, I would give you free rein. But waiting will only make it that much sharper tomorrow."

"Headmaster, I-" Madam Pomfrey looked entirely reluctant. "Are you sure?"

"Very." Dumbledore said solemnly. "Mr. Diggory - I am sorry, but I must ask you to tell me what happened tonight."

Madam Pomfrey shook her head and retreated to her office, muttering under her breath.

Cedric took a shaky breath and began to talk, beginning from when he and Gabriel both grabbed the cup. His father had a hand on his shoulder, and squeezed tightly as the story progressed. Cedric faltered when he reached the part just before the killing curse was fired.

"What happened next?" Dumbledore prompted gently. "What was the spell he used?"

"The..." Cedric swallowed. "It...the killing curse."

Everyone either gasped or clapped a hand over their mouths. McGonagall looked horrified. "But...if you're here then..."

Gabriel decided to go for the dramatic entrance. It wasn't like his brothers were going to find him here anyway, and if Dumbledore found out then that just increased the chances of Gabriel being able to skip out on the last three years. Besides, their reactions were going to be hilarious.

"I think you'll find that reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."

All the people in the room whipped around to look at Gabriel, who was standing next to the nearest empty bed. Well, almost all of them - the three Diggorys simultaneously closed their eyes and fell asleep, causing them to miss whatever conversation might follow.

"Harry!" Hermione wrapped Gabriel in a tight hug as the adults in the room [minus Vali and Narvi, who both looked slightly murderous] looked in alarm at the Diggorys.

Gabriel waved dismissively as he disentangled himself from Hermione. "Don't worry, they're just asleep."

"You did this?" asked Remus incredulously.

"Well," Gabriel shrugged. "I figured you'd ask questions as to how I got here so suddenly, and it wasn't an explanation I felt like giving to complete strangers."

"You mean-" Michael quickly cut nemself off, but Dumbledore was looking at nir with a thoughtful gaze.

"You know what Harry is talking about?"

"Sort of..?" Michael looked questioningly at Gabriel out of the corner of his eyes, as Gabriel rolled his. Michael was a horrible liar.

"You couldn't have done that to the Diggorys," Snape sneered at Gabriel. "You didn't even move. Magic doesn't work that way."

"Who said I was using magic?"

Dumbledore was staring at Gabriel now. "I had hoped," he said softly, "that I was wrong." Now both McGonagall and Snape were staring at him.

"Albus?" McGonagall said sharply. "What do you mean?"

"I was speaking to the merpeople after the second task," Dumbledore said heavily, "When they used a rather strange word in reference to Mr. Potter. But then..." he looked incredibly old in that moment. "You aren't Harry Potter, are you."

Absolute silence.

"Dumbledore, what are you talking about?" Sirius said, smiling slightly, like he thought Dumbledore was joking.

"No, he's got it right," said Gabriel mildly. "I did wonder about the merpeople, though. Figures that they ruined the surprise."

McGonagall had taken a seat heavily, and Sirius looked like he was close behind. Snape was staring at Gabriel in outright surprise, which looked odd on his face.

"Not...I don't understand," McGonagall said after a long silence had gone by. "How did this happen?"

"_That _is a very long story and even I'm not entirely sure of the details," Gabriel answered, "But long story short, I was passing by the Potter's in 1988 and got mixed up in whatever ritual Lily concocted to protect Harry."

Sirius gave a disbelieving laugh. "What - Dumbledore, tell me you don't believe this!"

Dumbledore shook his head. "Why would he have a reason to lie?"

Sirius's expression changed in a heartbeat. The smile darkened into a snarl and his wand was at Gabriel's throat before anyone could move.

Remus grabbed Sirius's arm, as if to pull it away, but he was also staring at Gabriel with something akin to betrayal.

Gabriel just looked at Sirius. "If it will make you feel better, go ahead."

"Get. Out. Of. My. Godson."

"So what, you can be left with a dead body?"

Sirius recoiled as if struck, his wand clattering to the floor.

"A one year old can't survive that curse, no matter how much you'd like to believe it." Gabriel shrugged. "Sorry."

Remus turned to Michael and Hermione. "You knew this and didn't tell anyone?"

"We promised not to," Hermione said stubbornly.

"And you thought a promise was more important than us needing to know?" McGonagall questioned incredulously.

"It wasn't your business," Michael replied, a bit stiffly.

"Does anyone else know?" Dumbledore asked. There was a sort of sadness lingering in his eyes, and maybe guilt, and he looked his age for the first time that Gabriel could remember.

"Ron," Gabriel replied. "After what happened in the shrieking shack at the end of last year, they demanded an explanation."

"And I assume they know what you are as well?" Dumbledore was taking this very calmly, Gabriel thought, but then again he'd had time to think over it.

"They do."

"And what about you?" Sirius rounded angrily on Vali and Narvi. "You don't seem upset at all! Isn't he your cousin?"

"We're related to him, not this Potter kid," Narvi snapped back. "I don't see any reason we should be upset."

"Enough!" Dumbledore stood up. "There will be no more arguing. We have all received..." he took a deep breath. "A shock," Dumbledore continued eventually.

"Dumbledore-"

"Sirius," Dumbledore said over McGonagall's protest, "If you would like to leave, no one would blame you."

Sirius glared at Gabriel. "No," he said darkly. "I'm finding out exactly what possessed my godson."

"It wasn't willing, you know." Gabriel said irritably. "Whatever ritual was meant to protect Harry somehow decided that I was his soul or whatever and locked me in here. If I had a choice I would have been long gone, believe me."

"But what are you?" Dumbledore pressed.

"I think the technical term is angel."

"_Excuse me?"_

"But they don't exist," said Remus in shock, distracted from the news of Harry's death.

"Actually, I'm standing right in front of you."

"This is outrageous," Snape's expression had reverted back to a sneer, which seemed to be the default. "Headmaster, I refuse to believe-"

Gabriel decided to go for the usual method of proof.

The torches which lit the hospital wing guttered in their brackets, most of them going out as Gabriel's wings unfolded. Of course, all anyone else would be able to see were the shadows, extending along the walls and very clearly showing two pairs.

Gabriel tucked them back away. Even Vali and Narvi were staring at him - while they did know that he was a little more than just Loki, he'd never shown off like that in front of them.

Hermione eventually broke the silence. "Merlin's pants." No one even told her off for rude language - McGonagall appeared too shocked to say anything, much less reprimand her.

Even Dumbledore looked stunned silent. Snape appeared to be having a fierce internal battle.

"Are we done debating my existence yet?" Gabriel asked.

"I - I suppose," said Dumbledore, looking thoroughly bewildered. "Is it possible for you to give a more in-depth explanation as to how you ended up as Harry Potter?"

This was going to take forever.

* * *

No one spoke right away once Gabriel finished telling the story for the third time. Sirius was sitting down with his head buried in his hands. Remus was standing behind the chair, gripping the back of it tightly.

Dumbledore spoke after several minutes. "And what will you do now?" he asked.

"What do you mean?"

"What happens now? You must have had some reason for coming to Hogwarts - will you continue to do so?" That caused several people to sit up straighter.

"Depends," Gabriel said slowly. "The problem that convinced me to come here in the first place has been taken care of, but I do understand that Harry Potter can't just vanish from the wizarding world." He glanced at the sleeping Cedric. "I assume he told you about Voldemort?"

"He did," said Dumbledore evenly, ignoring the slight flinches that almost everyone else made at the name.

"He's another problem." Gabriel displayed the cut in his robes. "Normally, taking blood to aid in a ritual wouldn't be as big a deal, but in a ritual like this, as well as _my _blood...you can see why it's a little more worrying."

Dumbledore had sat up straight. "What sort of side effects might there be?"

"Hopefully only negative ones, considering how dark he was, but it's impossible to know." Gabriel shrugged, absentmindedly running a finger over the tear and repairing it. noticing that Michael was watching him discreetly. "It's not like I can speak from previous experience. Nothing like this has ever happened before."

"But you're willing to help?" Dumbledore's gaze had turned sharp as flint.

"I'm not taking orders from anyone, but it's partly my problem now." Gabriel's eyes flickered to Vali and Narvi. "I've got other people to worry about."

"I understand. I would expect nothing else."

Gabriel suddenly remembered something. "Oh, you should also probably check wherever that portkey went to - there's gonna be a load of unconscious death eaters there, unless someone came and got them."

* * *

Death was waiting for Gabriel when he got back to the empty dorm.

"Bit impatient, aren't you?" Gabriel kicked his trunk open and pulled out the cloak. "This is yours, then."

"Indeed." Death took it and swung it around himself, the cloak melting into his long jacket. "Don't forget about the other two that I mentioned."

"Course not."

"I mean it. No 'misplacing' anything once you've located it, or pretending you've got to conserve your power."

Gabriel held both his hands up. "I won't! It's like you don't even trust me."

"Why should I?"

Gabriel shrugged. "I've got one thing to ask of you, though."

"A favor?" Death didn't react beyond his tone becoming slightly incredulous. "I believe I already granted you one."

"Yeah, that for the cloak." Gabriel held out two worn pieces of parchment - two of the three letters he'd found in Muriel's room. "For two other items - two letters to be delivered."

Death didn't even blink at the names on the outside. "And you can't deliver them yourself?"

"You know you're the only one who can get in and out of the cage without opening it."

"Fair enough." Death tucked the letters into an invisible pocket. "I had better receive the wand and the stone, Gabriel."

"I'll get them."

"Make sure you do." Death walked around the corner bedpost of the nearest bed and didn't reappear on the other side.

* * *

The last few days of term were filled with whispering and pointing. No one but Gabriel and Cedric knew the full details of what had happened, and neither of them had told anyone save those who had been in the hospital wing, so of course rumors were rife.

Dumbledore, of course, gave a speech at the end of the year explaining that Voldemort had returned, but Gabriel didn't think that the majority of the student population had actually taken him seriously. They certainly didn't seem very concerned about it in the days that followed.

The train ride home was largely uninterrupted. Ron was there, but Draco didn't come over the entire time. His father had been one of the masked men in the graveyard, so it was understandable. If stupid.

Ginny was there as well, and sitting a little too close to Michael [who was blushing profusely, even if it was hard to tell against nir dark skin] but no one commented on it, not even Ron, who most likely didn't even notice.

Gabriel was just enjoying the fact that he could go straight home from the train station in seconds now instead of navigating his way through London.

He landed on the doorstep with his trunk and unlocked the door, stepping inside and closing it behind him. "|Hello?|"

There was a shriek from somewhere farther away in the house and the sound of rapid footsteps. Gabriel laughed quietly and put his trunk down before Fenris burst around the corner.

"Faðir!"

"|Hey!|" Gabriel caught Fenris and swung him up as Fenris giggled. "|You have a good time with Sigyn?|"

Fenris wrapped his arms around Gabriel's neck. "|Uh-huh! She's really nice. And so are Vali and Narvi.|"

"|Oh really?|"

More footsteps pounded in the hall and Jormungand skidded around the corner, closely followed by Slepnir. "Faðir!"

"|Hey! Fenris was just telling me about how good you all were while I was gone.|" Gabriel grinned. "|You were good, right?|"

"|Yeah!|" Fenris said enthusiastically.

"|Nooo,|" Jormungand protested. "|You spilled the chocolate powder everywhere.|"

"|No I didn't!|"

"|I'm sure it was an accident,|" Gabriel said as he hoisted Fenris higher in his arms. "|Anything else interesting happen?|"

Jormungand thought for a minute. "|We went to see a movie.|"

"|It was the dragon movie but different!|" Slepnir said excitedly.

"|A sequel?|"

"|Yeah, that.|"

"They were quite thrilled," said Sigyn's voice. Gabriel looked up to see her standing in the doorway. "I see you're back."

"I am." Gabriel nudged his trunk out of the way with his foot, careful to keep a hold of Fenris. "Are you going to bail on me until next year?"

"|Stop talking in other words,|" Fenris demanded.

"|Other languages,|" Gabriel corrected him. Sigyn was watching with a guarded expression.

"No," she said eventually. "But don't think this is some sort of invitation."

"Never crossed my mind."

"Good." Sigyn turned and left sharply, Slepnir staring after her with a puzzled expression.

"|Why doesn't Sigyn like you?|"

"|That,|" said Gabriel, ruffling Slepnir's hair, "|Is a very long story you are not nearly old enough to hear yet.|"

It was good to be back.

* * *

**Well? What did you think? Please read and review!**

**PS: who would want a backstory as to why Sigyn hates Gabriel? let me know in a review or PM.**


	36. Balthazar and the Order

**Hey guys! Lots of reviews. Thank you all for leaving them, and especially to Mirthful-Malady for their AWESOME fanart! I feel like I've passed a milestone or something.  
**

**About the Sigyn and Gabriel story you all showed a ton of enthusiasm for; if I do write one, it will be published as a separate one-shot, not as part of this story.**

**Anyway, lots of nice things! The newer chapters are gonna be pretty tough. How will everyone deal with the return of Voldemort? I've also been asked about Snape. Personally, I think he was kind of an a-hole in the books too, so he's not too broken up over Harry's death. He only really cared about Lily. But he is smart enough not to antagonize an angel.**

**Wow, my story is popular enough to actually get 'critique' reviews. Another milestone. To those that left the reviews, if you don't like my story, I have a simple solution: stop reading it.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter**

* * *

Balthazar seemed to be in a state of suspended disbelief.

He'd shown up a few weeks into summer and with a load of complaints, and had frozen at the sight of Slepnir, Fenris, and Jormungandr practically climbing over Gabriel.

"Gabriel," he said carefully. "Is there a particular reason there are a load of tiny pagans in the house?"

"Hello to you to, Balthazar." Gabriel said idly. "Yes, I have a reason, and no, they're not leaving. Out of curiosity, how did you get here?"

"I walked," Balthazar said shortly, still staring at the three boys. "Mind telling me your reason?"

"|Who is he?|" Slepnir stage-whispered to Gabriel, who smothered a laugh at Balthazar's expression.

"|He's a friend,|" Gabriel replied cheerfully. "Come on, Balthazar, don't you remember all the time I spent away from Heaven?"

If only Gabriel had had a camera just then. Balthazar's mouth dropped open, and he looked totally flabbergasted as realization crashed over him.

"You're not serious." Balthazar finally said. "Gabriel, you can't-"

"Nephilim are forbidden, I know," Gabriel stood up, still grinning. "However, last I checked, the kids of an angel and a pagan weren't nephilim."

"Of course you would be the one to have an accident," Balthazar muttered, finally looking back up at Gabriel. Gabriel put a hand over his heart.

"Balthazar, you wound me. Who said they were an accident?"

"Whatever. Gabriel, do you know what happened?"

Gabriel's smile faded slightly. "You mean upstairs."

"_Yes, _that. Have you heard anything?"

"|Slepnir,|" Gabriel said instead on answering Balthazar. "|Why don't you go pick out a movie for you three to watch.|"

The three of them left the room eagerly, probably to watch the dragon movie for the eighteenth time.

"You lost your wings, didn't you?" Gabriel asked.

"What happened?" Balthazar pressed, ignoring the question. "I haven't been able to hear anyone else at all, it's like they're whispering!"

"Sit down." Gabriel explained what little he'd discovered to Balthazar, about how Metatron had used a spell which cast out the angels and Castiel had supposedly helped him.

"That's not all, is there." Balthazar was watching Gabriel closely. "What happened in the Fall? There's no way everyone survived that."

"Ezekiel didn't." Gabriel sighed. "Along with plenty of others. Neither did Naomi, but she might have been killed beforehand. Hael's gone too, but again no one's sure if she was killed in the Fall or afterwards."

"And what about you?" Balthazar sounded almost jealous. "You didn't Fall. You've still got your wings, haven't you."

"Most of them." Gabriel shifted in his chair, suddenly very aware of the two lingering sore spots near the small of his back. "Balthazar-"

"Don't pity me." Balthazar said sharply. "I'm not a child, Gabriel."

"I know that." Gabriel remained silent for a moment as they both sat at the kitchen table, Balthazar seemingly unwilling to speak. "You're still welcome to stay, you know, even if there are 'a load of tiny Pagans'." Gabriel resisted the temptation to use air quotes.

Balthazar didn't reply. Gabriel stood up and made to clap him on the shoulder or some other supportive gesture but decided against it at the last second, and left the room.

* * *

Gabriel probably should have guessed that Sigyn and Balthazar living in the same house would turn out badly.

It was late at night when Sigyn returned from wherever she had been, and Gabriel and Balthazar were the only ones still awake. She passed through the room, and stopped when she saw Balthazar on the sofa.

"Who's he?"

"Hel-_lo." _Balthazar's eyes flicked over Sigyn as he sat up from his reclined position.

Gabriel didn't even flinch as Sigyn buried a dagger in Balthazar's throat. "Sorry about him."

Sigyn eyed Balthazar distastefully as he removed the dagger, the cut healing cleanly. "Another one of your kind?"

"Yes. And no, I'm not going to kick him out."

"Hmph." Sigyn snatched her dagger back and strode away.

"Dangerous woman." Balthazar was rubbing his throat. "There a reason she's here?"

"Only person I could think of who could be trusted to watch the kids while I was at Hogwarts." Gabriel chucked a wet cloth at Balthazar. "Clean up, you're not getting blood all over my sofa."

Balthazar rolled his eyes as he caught it. "And you didn't call me."

"You're my alcoholic little brother, of course I didn't." Gabriel stood up from the table he was sitting at, working on the homework while he had some uninterrupted time. "Besides, I think the mother of two of my kids was a better choice."

Bathazar started so badly he nearly fell off the sofa. "You're _joking__," _he said when he pulled himself back up. "She had two of them? But she looked like she hated you. And there's no way you managed to land someone like that."

"What's that supposed to mean? And for your information, the three you met earlier have a different mother."

"A different-?" Balthazar was outright staring at Gabriel. "I don't believe you."

"You said it yourself - Sigyn hates me. Why would she give me kids that young?" They weren't that young, really, but it wasn't like Balthazar could tell or needed to know.

"Well then, what about those three - where's their mother?"

Gabriel froze in the act of leaving the room, pausing just over the threshold. "...She's dead."

"What?" There was a shuffling sound. "Gabriel." Balthazar's voice made his name sound like a question.

"It was in the thirteen hundreds. I've had time to get over it."

"How?"

"That's none of your business."

"Is it related to the fact that you call your completely humanoid kids Slepnir, Jor, and Fenris, while Norse mythology claims that those three are a horse, giant snake, and wolf respectively?"

"_Do not. Ever. Mention that to me again." _Gabriel wasn't aware of having grabbed the doorway, but it was creaking ominously under his fingers. He took a deep breath and let go, flexing his fingers and ignoring the dents he'd left.

"Gabriel-"

_Slam._

The door closed with a crash that Gabriel made sure didn't reach the upstairs. He didn't think he'd ever be in the mood to have a discussion about _that._

* * *

Gabriel received several letters over the course of the summer, but the most interesting one involved the offer to sit in on the meetings of some organization called the Order of the Phoenix.

The fact that it had been delivered by phoenix only made it more interesting, though Gabriel thought it likely that Dumbledore was just trying to show off. It had worked on Slepnir, at least, who had been sitting at the table with Gabriel when the phoenix and letter arrived.

It was the least informative letter about the organization he'd received all summer. Hermione and Michael's letters had been full of what they'd found out about it, complaints that they had been barred from attending meetings, and asking if he was going to do anything about Voldemort.

"Secret organization, huh?" Gabriel muttered, glancing down at the address for a meeting site at the bottom while Slepnir petted the phoenix. "Might as well check it out."

He sent a short reply that said he'd meet them the following Friday and had to coax Slepnir into letting him give the phoenix the letter. Even the phoenix seemed a little reluctant to leave, but that might have been Gabriel's fault.

"|What were you writing?|"

"In English, Slepnir." Gabriel had been working on languages with them - almost everyone spoke English these days, but Old Norse was basically nonexistent.

Slepnir screwed up his face. "Where..."

"What."

"What are...you? Um..."

"Writing."

"What are you writing?"

"What _was _I writing."

"|English is too hard.|" Slepnir put his head on the table, slumped over facedown.

"|You'll get it eventually.|"

* * *

Friday came all too quickly, and Gabriel found the address easily after ensuring that there was actually someone other than Balthazar at home to keep an eye on the kids. It turned out to be a small brick building across the street from a row of houses, one of which was strangely fuzzy. There was also a welcoming committee.

"Here," said Moody - presumably the real one - gruffly, thrusting a piece of parchment at Gabriel.

"Hello to you to." Gabriel glanced down at the paper briefly. "What was the point of meeting in the middle of London?"

"Just read it," Moody snapped.

"Calm down, Mad-Eye," said a younger woman with bright pink hair. "I don't think he's going to attack us."

Gabriel raised his eyebrows at that. "Attack you? I think I'm missing something here."

The three of them [there was also a tall, bald guy wearing a pair of elaborate robes and what looked like a fez] exchanged glances. "Dumbledore told us about what happened at the end of last year," the pink-haired girl said eventually. "About what you told him."

"Of course he did," Gabriel muttered, rolling his eyes and suppressing irritation. Was it impossible to keep anything secret anymore? He looked down at the parchment again.

_The headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix can be found at number 12, Grimmauld Place, London._

Gabriel looked back up at the fuzzy house, which no longer looked quite so fuzzy our out-of-focus. "Huh. Interesting spell. I was wondering what was up with that house." He strode across the street towards it, idly setting fire to the parchment and letting the ash fall away. The door had some sort of metal snake knocker, but Gabriel just opened it himself instead of ringing the doorbell.

"Are you back al - oh!" Mrs. Weasley had come out into the hall and stopped when she saw Gabriel in the doorway. "Er - I hadn't realized you'd arrived," she said, a bit cooler than she'd ever been with Gabriel before everyone found out who he really was.

"Surprise," Gabriel said, fake-cheerfully. He heard footsteps and the door creaked open again.

"Oh, hello, Mrs. Weasley," said the pink-haired girl cheerfully, striding past Gabriel and nearly tripping over a large umbrella stand that looked like it had been made out of some creature's leg. "Is everyone still in there?"

"Yes, they were waiting for you to come back." Mrs. Weasley gestured to the door she'd just exited from.

"Excellent." Moody stumped over and left the hall, the level of noise coming from the room behind the door suddenly dropping. Curious, Gabriel followed him in.

"Ah, so you did come!" Dumbledore was sitting at the head of the table, which was full of all sorts of people, most of whom Gabriel didn't recognize. "I got your reply, of course, but one can never be sure..."

"So this is your Order of the Phoenix?" Gabriel glanced around the room, noting that everyone was staring at him, and that Sirius was nowhere to be seen. Gabriel would have thought he'd be first in line for this sort of thing. "And I see you've spoiled my surprise."

"Were you-"

"I wasn't actually planning on telling anyone else, but it's not like I can do anything about it now." Gabriel put a hand to his chin in pretend thought. "Unless you count wiping your collective memories - oh, sit down, I was joking." Several people had started and moved to stand up or for their wands when he mentioned memory-wiping. Gabriel pulled out the nearest empty chair and sat down. "So why invite me here?"

Dumbledore cleared his throat. "I'm sure you remember the letter - this is the Order of the Phoenix, an organization dedicated to defending against Voldemort." The majority of the table flinched at the name.

"Just defending?" Gabriel asked.

"We can't predict his actions," said a witch defensively.

"I wasn't saying that," Gabriel retorted, glancing over at her. "I was saying, is there ever a point where you'd go on the offensive?"

Dumbledore waved his hand. "Voldemort-" Another flinch at the name. "-is not currently active, so either way, there are no battles to fight."

"What do you mean, he's not active?" Gabriel frowned. "I met the guy twice and he seems pretty flamboyant."

"You and Cedric were not meant to be able to warn anyone," Dumbledore explained. "I believe Voldemort-" Cue collective flinch. "-overestimated his ability to be able to kill the pair of you. Unfortunately, what with the Ministry ignoring his return-"

"The what?" Gabriel sat up. "You're joking."

"You didn't know?" Questioned the pink-haired witch.

Gabriel shot her a look. "I don't read the prophet and I don't care enough to go around investigating, so no. When did this happen?" He demanded, turning back to Dumbledore.

"I attempted to warn the Minister shortly after our conversation in the hospital wing," Dumbledore replied, looking unfazed. "Unfortunately, he is now insisting that I am senile and you are an attention-seeker."

"Rude," Gabriel muttered. "What are you doing about it?"

"Well, we've managed to convince some people - you have met Tonks and Kingsley, of course, they work for the Ministry." 'Tonks' turned out to the pink-haired witch, while 'Kingsley' was the dark-skinned one with the fez. "They are our spies, of a sort."

Gabriel nodded. "Eyes in the enemy headquarters. Good move."

"I suppose you'd know," muttered Moody.

"Alastor!" Dumbledore said warningly, but Gabriel put his hand up.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Moody's magical eye swiveled around so that both eyes were looking right at Gabriel. "Well," he continued, "If you really are what you say you are, you'd have experience with war, wouldn't you?"

Gabriel arched one eyebrow. "Do I hear doubt?"

"I'm saying you've never shown that you can do anything beyond regular magic-"

"You're asking for _proof?" _Gabriel leaned forward. "So what you're saying is that you don't trust the leader of your organization."

The rest of the order were watching them in a sort of horrified fascination. Moody didn't back down.

"You could have tricked Dumbledore," he growled. "He trusts you enough, and magic could be used to fake whatever evidence you had."

"Alastor-" Dumbledore tried to intervene again.

"There a particular reason you're so against my existence?" Gabriel asked, standing up. Moody was already standing, leaning against the wall on the other side of the table.

He snorted. "Angels," he muttered. "There's no such thing. If there were, you'd think this Dark stuff would be gone already."

"It is not my job," Gabriel said icily, "To police your world and take care of your problems. Kid's got to leave the house eventually."

"Are you implying that we're children?"

Gabriel narrowed his eyes at Moody and stepped slightly closer, the table blocking him from going any farther. The lights guttered suddenly, and several went out, causing many of the people there to look around nervously. Gabriel glared, and was almost impressed by the fact that Moody barely visibly backed down. His hand, however, did drift to his wand.

When Gabriel spoke it was quietly, but he knew he had the attention of everyone in the room - because way in the back of their minds right now, there would be a primal instinct screaming _danger _at them.

"I am older than the very planet beneath your feet," he said, his gaze meeting Moody's. "I was present at the creation of this very universe. So yes, I think you're smaller than me. And how you're acting right now isn't doing much to convince me otherwise."

Gabriel turned and left the room, the door closing with a click as the lock automatically engaged. This had been ridiculous, and he'd learned less than a single letter from Michael or Hermione.

"So _you're _the reason they went all quiet!"

Gabriel looked up.

Hermione, Michael, Ginny, Ron, and the twins were clustered around the railing on the landing a few floors up, staring down at him. Fred was hurriedly yanking up some sort of flesh-colored string.

"Yeah, it was me," he called up, grinning slightly. "How long have you been there?"

"We didn't see you go in," Michael answered. "Come on up, I don't want to have to shout!"

"Alright," Gabriel said, flying up and landing behind them in an instant as he said it. Ginny jumped and spun around, as he was right behind her.

"That wasn't Apparition," said George, glancing at Fred.

"I have no idea what that is," Gabriel said. "Thanks for the letters, by the way, they're the only reason I know anything at all about the order besides who works for it."

"They didn't tell you anything?" Ginny asked, sounding disappointed. "But they let you in..."

"Nah, Moody was more interested in quibbling over my species," Gabriel said, with a sideways look at the twins and Ginny.

"They know," Hermione admitted when she noticed him looking. "I hope you don't mind, but we heard a little bit of the order talking about it and I didn't want to lie to them."

"It's fine, cat was pretty much out of the bag already." Gabriel glanced over the railing as the door opened and order members flooded the hallway. "What is this place, anyway? Hell of an enchantment over it."

"Can you say that?" Fred was looking at Gabriel in interest. "Hell, I mean."

"Sure." Gabriel gave him a _seriously _look. "Why wouldn't I be able to?"

"Well-" George gestured vaguely.

Gabriel snorted, but before he could reply someone shouted upstairs. "Hermione, is Harry up there? Dumbledore would like a word."

"Bugger. I was never here," Gabriel instructed Hermione, flying away before she could say anything and landing in the foyer of his house.

The Order of the Phoenix, as far as he could tell, was really a bit ridiculous. He'd stick to keeping his own safe.

* * *

_Ring, ring, ring._

Gabriel picked up the phone as he tried to remember who he'd given the number to. "Hello?"

"Harry!" It was Michael. "Oh, good, I was wondering if I'd remembered it right."

"Michael, where are you that has a phone?"

"We've gone out to London for tonight." There were the sounds of cars and passers-by in the background, once Gabriel listened closer. "I'm using a phone box, actually, Ron keeps staring around at everything."

"First time in Muggle London?" Gabriel leaned back in his chair. "I wouldn't be surprised. How'd you get out of the house?"

"We had to sneak out, Fred and George helped." Gabriel could practically hear nir grin. "Ginny was awesome, she got one of the spare invisibility cloaks that are always hidden away-"

"Of course you'd say that, she's your girlfriend."

"Oi, don't be mean to Michael," someone said faintly [probably Ginny], as if they were standing far away from the phone. Gabriel's attention was diverted from the conversation.

"One sec - |Jormungand, don't stand on that - hey! What's the rule about magic?|" Jormungand had levitated himself to reach one of the cabinets.

"Who are you talking to?" Michael asked curiously, at the same time Jormungand replied "|No magic without super...without you watching.|" He remained three feet above the floor.

"|Exactly. No magic.|"

"|But you're sitting right there!|"

"|That's not the same as supervising, bud. Back on the ground.|" Gabriel directed a pouting Jormungand back to the floor, cancelling the levitation spell.

A muffled conversation was coming through the phone.

"What's he doing?"

"I dunno, he's talking to someone but it doesn't sound like English-"

"|Who's in the phone?|" Jormungand asked curiously, clambering onto Gabriel's lap.

"|There's no one inside it, there are people on the other end. I explained phones, remember?|" Gabriel picked the phone back up before Jormungand could decide that he wanted to talk too. "Sorry, got distracted."

"That wasn't English!" Hermione had obviously grabbed the phone.

"No, it wasn't," Gabriel agreed. "So what are you doing in London?"

There was a bit of a scuffle on the other end before someone answered, Ginny this time. "I'd like to go to a movie place," she informed Gabriel, "or whatever it's called. Where they have movies. I want to see what Muggles can do with this kind of thing."

"I hear Into Darkness is good," said Gabriel, only slightly occupied making sure Jormungand didn't wriggle off his lap and fall onto the floor. "But it's a sequel, don't know if you'd be interested."

"A sequel?" Ginny's voice faded out slightly. "He says we should go see something called 'into darkness'."

"Oh, that's a good one, actually."

Something crashed distantly and Gabriel nearly dropped the phone swinging around to see what had happened. "|Jor, what were your brothers doing?|"

"What was that?" Ginny asked at the same time.

"|Magic,|" Jormungand answered unrepentantly, reaching up for the phone. "|I wanna talk.|"

Gabriel swallowed a swear and spoke quickly into the phone. "Listen, I've got to go head off a crisis, call back later and tell me what you thought." He hung up hurriedly and deposited Jormungand on the floor. "|Sorry, kid, gotta go see what mess your brothers have gotten into.|"

* * *

"Slepnir! Fenris! Er - _Vali?"_

"|Don't worry!|"

"This isn't what it looks like."

"It _looks _like you turned the sofa into a pile of sand."

"Okay, it's exactly what it looks like."

"|We're building a castle!|"

"|In the living room?|"

"|Yes.|"

"|...You have two hours. Then I'm turning it back.|"

"|You too! Help me with the castle.|"

"|Alright, alright. I'll help.|"

* * *

**The phone conversation was a little ad-libbed, but I'm sure that you guys can appreciate it nonetheless. **

**Anyway, read and review! The box is right down there!**


	37. Diagon Alley and Back to Hogwarts

**Thank you all for the lovely reviews! As a note, I was going to do some of my own official art for this story, so I'll try and put the links up as soon as that actually gets done. If it does. It's just a possibility.  
**

**Another note, school is starting soon for me, so I'll be busy with homework and such and I won't have nearly as frequent updates.**

**IMPORTANT NOTE! I don't know if any of you noticed, but I published the promised one-shot about Sigyn and Gabriel. There are only about ten views, so I'll assume you haven't noticed. Go crazy, let me know what you think.**

**Woo! 500 reviews! My most popular story by far.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter**

* * *

Come the beginning of August, Gabriel was not in the best of moods.

"Balthazar."

"What do you want now?"

"I need to talk to you for a moment."

Balthazar heaved an exaggerated sigh and stood up, moving into the next room with Gabriel. "What? I was busy."

"Sure you were." Gabriel didn't even bother to roll his eyes. "Have you been listening to angel radio?"

Balthazar sobered slightly. "A bit. Why?"

"The you've heard the news already."

"I haven't been listening _recently. _What happened now?"

Gabriel let out a long breath. "It's been almost talked over - no one seems to be very concerned with it - but Abbadon's been rumored to be moving around again."

"Abbadon?" Balthazar asked incredulously. "The _Knight of Hell?_ I thought they were all dead."

"I did, too. I've no idea how she went under the radar for so long, or why, but she's back."

"And _no one_ seems worried?"

"They seem to be a bit more occupied with Bartholomew and Malachi's factions - it's practically outright warfare by now." Gabriel retorted.

"I _know _that. Isn't anyone doing anything about Abbadon? A Knight's something to worry about, now that they haven't got any archangels around, and locked out of Heaven on top of that."

"I didn't finish, Balthazar."

"Wonderful, more bad news." Balthazar did roll his eyes, leaning against the doorframe.

"You know how you told me Crowley set himself up on the throne of Hell after Lucy got tossed back in the cage?"

Balthazar's body language changed immediately, straightening and stiffening. "Oh, hell."

"Yeah, exactly." Gabriel folded his arms. "Abbadon apparently didn't react well to the news that the former King of the Crossroads was ruling Hell."

"So you're telling me-" Balthazar raised one hand. "That on top of every one of our siblings being marooned on Earth, sans wings, and rife with internal fighting, _Hell _is about to have a civil war?"

"That's about the shape of things."

Balthazar closed his eyes. "I need a drink. What about Bartholomew and Malachi?"

"Far as I can tell, they're not going to get along anytime soon. Never did, really. There are other groups, and some neutrals, but I don't think they're going to last long. Bartholomew's determined to stay in charge. He always liked positions of power."

"And what about Castiel?"

"Christ, Balthazar, if you're so curious then listen in yourself!" Gabriel snapped. "I've got no idea what happened to Castiel, because he's not on angel radio, probably because everyone who _is_ wants to kill him!"

"Alright!" Balthazar raised his hands slightly. "You're the one who initiated this conversation!"

"To talk about Abbadon. Not Castiel or any of our other siblings."

"Fine, then, let's stop talking. Where'd you hide the alcohol?"

"Who says I hid it?" Gabriel had actually thrown it all out, if vanishing the lot counted as throwing it out.

Balthazar groaned and pressed the heels of his palms against his forehead. "Bloody brilliant."

* * *

An owl bearing a Hogwarts letter came later in the month, and the letter was immediately snatched away and hidden by Fenris, who seemed to think that if Gabriel couldn't find the letter, he wouldn't leave.

It took Gabriel twenty minutes to find him, and the rest of the hour to explain very thoroughly why he had to leave. Fenris insisted on being carried around the rest of the afternoon in exchange for giving back the letter.

Sigyn, Vali, and Narvi were still perfectly willing to stay and look after the three boys, which was one worry off of Gabriel's mind. The letter had included an offer to come by order headquarters again, but Gabriel tossed that straight into the fireplace, still kind of pissed that Dumbledore had leaked the news to so many people. He was trying to stay undercover, damnit.

The three boys also insisted on coming to Diagon Alley with him, which led to Vali and Narvi asking questions about it, and the whole thing turned into a gigantic family outing, as even Sigyn ended up joining them.

It took about three hours to get everything sorted [protection and various disguises] so that they could leave for the alley, Gabriel flying them all straight into the pub with a fake _crack _to disguise it as Apparition.

He had disguised himself as a slightly younger version of his old vessel, American accent and all. Fenris had insisted that his hair be changed to white, but had settled for a blond only slightly lighter than Slepnir's [who had stayed mostly the same]. Jormungand had simply grown out his now-red hair into a small ponytail and made his nose slightly different, while Vali and Narvi had utilized the centuries of practice they had and done their disguises themselves, turning into fraternal twins with shorter hair and much thinner faces.

"Alright," said Gabriel, hosting Fenris up on his hip. "I can take care of books and such, you guys can just explore wherever, but stay out of Knockturn, you two."

"What, us?" Vali pulled a fake innocent expression. "I have no idea what you mean."

"Don't get into any trouble," Sigyn admonished them, posing as their collective mother, since no one would believe that Gabriel was their father. Even looking like he was now. "I'm not doing any damage control today."

"|Let's go,|" Slepnir insisted, tugging on Gabriel's free hand. They had needed an extra enchantment to make sure no one realized exactly what language the three boys were speaking. "|I wanna see the alley.|"

"|Alright, alright.| I've already gotten money from the bank, so we can head right out." Taking a group of pagans into a bank run by goblins was asking for a disaster.

Half an hour was wasted in the pet shop [with Gabriel constantly having to return animals to their cages] before Gabriel could get anything done. Luckily, none of the three seemed inclined to wander too far away from them, the foreign location combined with being surrounded by strangers preventing Gabriel from having to go chasing after them.

The bookstore being the only exception.

"|What's that?|"

"|That's a rune book, it's for a class at school.|"

"|Why are you buying it?|"

"|Because I take the class. That's why we're here, remember? I have to buy stuff for school.|"

"|Okay...but why aren't you buying the other one?|"

"|Because I'm supposed to get this one. If I get the other one I'll have the wrong book.|"

"|But this one is pretty.|"

"|It is. Hey - Jor, don't wander off!|"

"|But that area's _boring.|"_

_"|_Do you want to get lost?|"

"|...No.|"

"|Exactly. Stay over here.|"

"|But I like it over here. They have stories.|"

Sigh. "|We have wizard stories at home. Come back over here.|"

"|No.|"

"|_Jor...|"_

Fortescue's was an immediate hit, since none of them had ever had ice cream before. The group of four were distracted by the treat, and thus taken completely by surprise when a brunette woman slid into the only unoccupied seat.

"Hel!" Gabriel said in surprise. She looked very different, no doubt a glamour applied to keep anyone from panicking, and the usual mask had been forgone.

"Did you think I would pass up the opportunity?" She teased. "I haven't seen you in ages, and I have had my fill of traveling for now."

Fenris scrambled over into her lap. "|Hel! You're big now!|"

"|And you are still little,|" Hel replied. "What is this place, anyway?"

"It's an ice cream parlor." Gabriel gestured to his nearly-empty dish of chocolate. "It's a dessert."

"I see."

Jormungand tugged on Hel's sleeve. "|You're too big,|" he told her matter-of-factly. "|You're supposed to be the baby.|" Hel looked like she wasn't sure whether or not to laugh.

"|It's because of the bad magic,|" Gabriel said after a moment, in lieu of any other explanation. "|You didn't get any older, but Hel did because she wasn't enchanted.|" Hel shot him a look at the lie, but didn't protest it.

"|Does that mean I'm the littlest now?|" Fenris said, disappointed.

"|No, you're still older than Hel.|" That made him grin widely.

"|Don't get too proud, Fenris, you're still smaller,|" Hel reminded Fenris, looping her arms around him as he was still on her lap. "So where are you off to next?"

"Oh, there's just various little things to get next. I got the books already, so there's not that much left."

"This is a very interesting district."

"Really? I was thinking more 'crazy'."

* * *

Hel was also surprised by Sigyn's presence, but got along well with Vali and Narvi, to Gabriel's relief. The twins were thrilled to finally meet their little sister, if a little upset that Gabriel had never mentioned that they had a third younger sibling.

Honestly, he'd forgotten that Hel had never had a chance to meet the twins previously.

It wasn't a subject Gabriel liked to linger on.

Sigyn, as usual, had been rather distant, but she'd at least said hello. Hel seemed to understand and didn't go out of her way to try and talk to Sigyn.

The outing, in general, had gone well, but one consequence Gabriel hadn't expected was that everyone wanted to do the same thing on September first.

"We don't even _have _a car."

"You can fly us," Hel retorted. "Honestly, dad, what do you have against it? You can just go in disguise again and turn back on the train."

In the end, Gabriel was outvoted six to one [Sigyn had abstained] and they all found themselves in the middle of platform nine and three quarters at ten-thirty on September first.

The platform was already crowded, but Gabriel had found a relatively secluded spot to land, and another artificial _crack _had people completely unsurprised as the group stepped out from behind a pillar.

Gabriel knelt down so that he was level with Fenris. "|No sneaking onto the train, okay? I promise I'm not leaving for good.|"

"|Okay,|" Fenris muttered, but didn't let go of Gabriel's pant leg.

"|You guys all be good, you hear?|" Gabriel gave them what he hoped was a parentally stern look. "|I don't want any letters saying you've turned the sofa into a flock of flamingos or anything like that.|" He at least got a giggle from Jormungand and Slepnir, but Fenris still looked on the verge of tears. "|Hey, no crying, I'm gonna be back by December, remember?|"

"|Yeah,|" Fenris mumbled.

"|You want a hug?|"

Nod. Gabriel pulled Fenris in, feeling him latch on like an octopus. With only four, very non-sticky arms.

"|Come on, it'll be alright.|" Hel picked Fenris up as Gabriel let go. "|You're going to make dad late.|"

Fenris said something muffled into Hel's jacket that sounded distinctly like 'good'. Gabriel grinned and looked down at Jormungand, ruffling his hair.

"|You held Slepnir look after him, okay? But don't forget to have fun. Fun is vital.|"

Jormungand nodded. "|Do you have to go again?|"

"|Yeah, I do. If I didn't, I wouldn't be going. Trust me on that.|"

A whistle blew and Gabriel glanced at the train. Parents up and down the platform were hustling their kids onto it, waving goodbye and blowing kisses. "|I'll see you all in December, promise!|" His trunk had been shrunk and stuck in his pocket, so Gabriel easily leaped onto the nearest carriage and leaned out, waving goodbye as the train gained steam and began moving out of King's Cross. All four [well except for Fenris] waved back until they grew too small to be seen and Gabriel had to duck farther inside the carriage before the momentum of the train pulled him out the door.

Gabriel checked and realized that he was several carriages down from where he could see Michael and Ginny sitting; Hermione was strangely absent. It was easy to frost over the windows and fly inside, causing them to jump violently.

"Who the hell are you?" Gabriel glanced down at himself. Right. He was still disguised as his old vessel.

"Sorry about that, I forgot," he replied easily, British accent returning as his hair bled back to black and he sat down next to Michael, who was staring. Actually, they were both staring - Gabriel had never been quite so open with what he could do, after all.

"Since when are you a metamorphmagus?" Ginny asked.

"I have absolutely no idea what that is but I'll assume you're referring to the shapeshifting. And I've always been able to do it - just because I haven't demonstrated something doesn't mean I can't."

"So," Michael said after a pause. "How was your summer?"

"Good enough. Your trip to London go well?"

"Merlin, you should have seen the fit Mum threw when we got back," Ginny said, rolling her eyes. "You'd think we'd waltzed into the Ministry of Magic and tried to rob the Department of Mysteries."

"She woke up the painting of Sirius' mum and then _all _the paintings started screaming," Michael added with a snort. "It took ages to get quiet again. If I ever have to stay there again it'll be too soon."

"You know, I never found out what that house was."

"It's Sirius' old house, apparently," Ginny explained."He volunteered to let Dumbledore use it for headquarters over the summer."

"It's horrible," Michael added. "The place hasn't been cleaned in ages because the only house-elf still alive is completely insane."

"Hm." Gabriel leaned back in his seat. "So where's Hermione?"

"She's prefect, got the letter in the mail." Michael replied. "She and Ron are up in the prefect's carriage, getting orders or whatever."

"Ron's a prefect too?"

"Believe me, we were all surprised." Ginny said. "So was he, to be honest, I don't think anyone was expecting that...Fred and George were horrified, of course."

"This is their last year, isn't it?"

"Yeah, they keep getting all serious now...they wanted to set up a joke shop, I think, but there's not really enough money." Ginny shrugged. "I think mum's glad they can't, to be honest, she never really approved of the whole joke shop thing."

"Joke shop, huh?" Sounded interesting. Gabriel would have to ask the twins about that.

"So did you go see the movie I recommended?"

* * *

Hogwarts was the same as ever, barring one very obvious change - there was an ugly-looking woman dressed in Pepto-Bismol pink sitting at the head table.

"Please tell me that's not our new Defense teacher."

"Let's hope not," Michael muttered back as they sat down at the Ravenclaw table. "What the hell is she wearing?"

Gabriel shrugs and glances around, noticing that several people had been staring avidly, but hurriedly looked away as soon as they noticed him looking back.

"There a reason I'm being treated like I have the plague?"

Michael stiffened slightly, glancing over at Gabriel. "You haven't been reading the Prophet, have you?"

"Dumbledore mentioned that I was being discredited."

"Oh." Ne relaxed again. "Well, it's gone a little farther than that - basically, every time someone has got a sort of strange story, or is in an accident, they'll slip in a little joke - trying to get people to think that you can't be trusted, since you're saying You-Kno-"

"Oh come on, Michael, you can say his name."

"...Since you're saying he's back and Fudge doesn't want anyone to believe that."

"I knew he was a disgrace to the name," Gabriel muttered. "Time for a new minister, d'you think?"

"Wha - you're serious?"

"Sure"

"Why?"

Gabriel shrugged. "Because I feel like it. And I can. And I don't like him."

Michael muttered something to nemself and stared at nir goblet as if willing it to fill. "I've known for three years and I still get surprised by you."

"That will most likely never stop happening."

The tables filled themselves with food as soon as the Sorting ended, and students eagerly fell to talking and eating as usual. Luna, who Gabriel remembered clearly from last year, had managed to find a seat directly opposite them.

"Your wings look much better," she said cheerfully to Gabriel.

"They are," he agreed. "I've managed to solve the problem which made them so raggedy."

Michael's eyes were flicking between them. "I think I'm missing something. Since when does Luna know?"

"I've always known," Luna said dreamily. "His wings are quite big, after all, it was easy to see them."

Michael gaped at her. "You can see-"

"So how was your summer?" Gabriel asked nonchalantly, elbowing Michael in the side to get nir to be quiet. There was no need to announce it to the entire hall.

"It was very good. Daddy and I went to Sweden to try and find a Crumple-Horned Snorcack, but we didn't have any luck."

What the hell was a Crumple-Horned Snorcack. "...Sounds interesting. I can't say I've heard of it."

"Not many people have." Luna was still smiling faintly. "Most of them believe that I just make things up. Like the Nargles."

"The what?"

"They fly in people's brains and make their thoughts all fuzzy."

Well, Gabriel had never heard of a Nargle, but the description made it sound a lot like a Mara.

Before he could reply, Dumbledore stood up to begin his usual speech. To Gabriel's irritation, the pink woman was their new teacher; Hagrid was also missing for some reason, but Gabriel didn't pay much attention to that, as he didn't take the class and only vaguely knew the man.

Dumbledore suddenly broke off midsentence. At first people exchanged questioning looks, wondering why he'd stopped, but the reason became apparent when the pink woman got to her feet, obviously about to make a speech.

And it was probably the most boring speech Gabriel had ever heard. Even compared to _Zachariah, _she was boring. The majority of the students seemed to agree, putting their heads together in private conversations or staring up at the woman with glazed-over eyes.

If that was what her classes were going to be like, Gabriel doubted he'd be attending.

She eventually sat back down [thank Dad] and only Dumbledore and a smattering of students trying to live up to their prefect badges clapped.

"Defense is going to be a nightmare this year," Michael muttered. "Couldn't you do something about her?"

"If I felt like it."

* * *

**This chapter is long enough already so I'm going to end it there.**

**Hope you all appreciated the scenes with Hel and the others!**

**Read and review, as usual!**


	38. Meetings and Revelations

**Another chapter already! Glad to see some of you took a look at 'Sigyn and Gabriel', since I was pretty proud of how that turned out. It still doesn't have a lot of reviews, though, so please tell me what you think!  
**

**I think things will be getting a little more serious, and most likely stray off the canon path more than they have in the past! I know several people have complained about that, but rest assured I'm not changing it because of said disgruntled reviewers.**

**Umbridge certainly won't last as long. I was going to try and bring Ron back into it, since he wasn't really involved in the fourth year shenanigans, and I like his character. But if I can't fit him in with Gabriel, then he probably won't make a reappearance.**

**Also, more Luna! Because she's awesome and I really wanted to have more of her last year.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter**

* * *

Once the feast was over, things did not go nearly as well as they had up to that point. Everyone seemed to be treating Gabriel like he was some sort of social pariah, and Cedric seemed to be receiving the same treatment from everyone save the other Hufflepuffs.

The same did not extend to the Ravenclaws, however. Gabriel had barely closed his trunk before a voice from behind him demanded "Well, is it true?"

He turned around, only to find the three boys he shared a dorm with all staring at him expectantly. Anthony was in front of both of them, arms folded and feet planted solidly.

"You might have to be a little more specific," Gabriel said dryly, internally raising an eyebrow at the defensive posture. "I'm not a mind reader." A blatant lie, but it wasn't like they knew.

"About You-Know-Who," Anthony said. He was looking at Gabriel slightly disdainfully, which almost made Gabriel laugh out loud. "And how Dumbledore's claiming you and Cedric saw him return."

"I don't claim anything," Gabriel retorted. "But if you want to believe whatever shit the newspaper is shelling out, by all means, go ahead."

This seemed to give the other two pause, but Anthony kept right on going. "Look," he said angrily. "I don't get what you're getting out of this, Harry. You're just trying to cause trouble."

"Well, let's go back for a minute." Gabriel met Anythony's glare evenly. "What would I get out of it?"

"Excuse me?" Anthony obviously hadn't expected his own words to be turned against him - but Gabriel hadn't been known as Loki Silvertongue for nothing.

"What point could there possibly be to lying like this? Like you said, there's no reason. Which means either a, I'm crazy, or b, I'm right." Gabriel shrugged. "Your choice, but I think we both know which one is more likely."

"More - you think someone coming back from the dead is more likely?" Anthony sputtered. He spun around to face Kevin something and the other boy who Gabriel thought might have been named Evan. "Don't tell me you believe this too!"

"I don't," Kevin said quickly. "But - he's got a point, doesn't he? What reason would he have to say something like that? And why would Cedric back him up?"

_"Thank_ you," Gabriel said, whirling around to point at Kevin. "At least _someone's _got sense."

Anthony was shaking his head, staring at both of them with wide eyes. "You're both crazy," he said finally. "And You-Know-Who-"

"Oh, grow up and use his name," Gabriel snapped. "He's not going to magically appear in the dorm if you say _Voldemort."_

All three of them flinched violently at the name. "Oh, come on!"

"Look," Anthony said determinedly. "I don't believe you, okay?"

"What a surprise."

"_You-Know-Who," _Anthony took a breath. "Is not back. I don't know how you convinced Cedric to believe you, much less Dumbledore, but there's no way someone can come back from the dead."

Gabriel raised an eyebrow. "Voldemort was the darkest wizard this society had seen this side of World War two. What made you think he was really dead?"

With his roommates gaping at him, Gabriel climbed into bed and yanked the curtains shut. Idiots, the lot of them. Idiots and cowards to afraid to face the truth - especially Fudge. He'd really have to do something about the Minister if he wanted to have a decent year.

* * *

It took exactly three minutes of Umbridge's class for Gabriel to leave a double in his place [he almost felt bad for inflicting her teaching on the construct] and get the hell out of Dodge.

"Basic principles my ass," Gabriel muttered as he walked down the staircase leading to Muriel's room. "Fudge is up to something, why else give us a teacher who refuses to teach? There's no way Dumbledore hired her on his own."

Which led to the question, why was she here?

Gabriel spent the entire period in Muriel's room, amusing himself, and when he came up later to head for lunch he was confronted by Cedric outside the great hall.

"Can I talk to you?" Cedric asked.

"Sure." Gabriel glanced around at the mostly-empty entrance hall. "What?"

"You haven't..." Cedric trailed off. "Have you run into anyone asking about...you know..."

"Last summer and the so-called outrageous claim about Voldemort?" Cedric flinched. "Oh, grow up. Yes, I have, a couple of my roommates asked about it." Well, if 'asked' meant 'demanded answers'. "Why?"

"I was just wondering." Cedric grinned slightly. "Because, you know, I thought you might have some problems - I mean, most of the Hufflepuffs believe me, but you're in Ravenclaw, so-"

"House of the Loyal and all that, I suppose." Gabriel interrupted. "I'm not being attacked or anything, though, the worst that's happened all day is our wonderful defense professor."

"Is she really that bad?" Cedric asked. "I haven't got her till Wednesday."

"As long as you're willing to do nothing but read the world's shittiest book for the entire class, she's fine." Gabriel rolled his eyes. "If you're not? Yes, she is." Gabriel moved to go into the hall, knowing that the double wasn't there.

"Er...I'll keep that in mind. And listen-" Cedric put his hand on Gabriel's shoulder. "If anyone gives you trouble, Hufflepuff will be behind you, alright?"

Gabriel glanced up at Cedric, surprised at the offer. The kid really was too nice. "...Right. Thanks."

"No problem."

* * *

Gabriel was not the only one being sought out, though. Draco's feet nearly left the ground when he realized that Gabriel was standing behind him.

"Merlin!"

"Not quite, Draco."

Draco didn't turn around to look at Gabriel. The only reason he'd noticed was because the archangel had positioned himself so that he was right next to Draco's reflection in the bathroom mirror - luckily, no one else was feeling the call of nature at the moment.

"What are you doing here?"

"I think we both know that."

"No, I don't," said Draco, a little more angrily. "And I'd prefer a _warning _before you pop up behind me. How did you get in here, anyway? The door was locked."

Like that would pose any challenge to Gabriel. "Don't change the subject."

"What do you want, then?"

"Whose side are you on?"

It was a far more complicated question than five words really deserved to be. Draco paused, perfectly still bending over the sink, and then slowly turned around.

"Who wants to know?" He asked.

"Me," Gabriel replied. "We both know your daddy was under one of those hoods in the graveyard, so I'm wondering if I need to watch out for you following in his footsteps."

"...And why do you care?" Draco sneered after a moment. "Trying to be a hero, saving the poor boy from the dark side?"

"I'm trying to ask which choice you're making." Gabriel spread his arms. "Unless you _want _to be a death eater. In which case, go ahead. It'll be me you're fighting against."

"I don't have a choice," Draco spat. "So I don't need your pity."

"You do have a choice."

"My father-"

"Screw him. What do you want?"

Draco stared at Gabriel for a minute or two. "Why are you so insistent?" He finally asked, not answering the question. "Why do you care if I have a choice?"

Gabriel let out a breath. "Free will," he muttered, more to himself than to Draco. "That's where this whole problem started, didn't it? Your answer," he said, raising his voice, "Is that everyone gets a choice."

The Winchesters had fought hard for that and Gabriel might not like them, but he did agree that they had a point. Also it would have pissed of Michael to no end.

"Some people don't."

"Well, they should have one."

"It's not that easy!" Draco shouted suddenly. "You make it sound like I can just say I don't want to-"

"Can't you?"

"Not to my father."

Well.

Gabriel could certainly sympathize with that.

"Distant, unforgiving type, huh?"

"He'd kick me out."

"So you can go stay with Dumbledore's little group or whatever. I'm sure they'll be thrilled to hear you've stayed away from the dark side."

"Wha - who says I have?" Draco demanded.

Gabriel arched one eyebrow. "So you _do _want to become a death eater?"

Draco just gaped at him.

"That's what I thought. Look, if you're that worried, go home for Christmas and I'll show you the way there from King's Cross." Gabriel clapped Draco on the shoulder. "You can show up or not, I'll take that as your answer. Sound fair? Good. Have a nice night."

He turned on his heel and left the bathroom without waiting for an answer.

* * *

Umbridge barely entered Gabriel's mind over the next few weeks, though Michael kept grumbling about how stupid the classes were, and he was content to simply refuse to subject himself to her 'teaching' until the year was over and she was kicked out or killed or however the so-called defense teacher curse manifested itself this time.

At least, he was until he ran into Luna late one day in the corridors, both of them on their way back to Ravenclaw tower.

"Oh, hello." She was holding her hands behind her back, and strangely, enough, was barefoot.

"There a reason you're not wearing any shoes?"

"Oh." Luna glanced down at her feet. "I go barefoot sometimes - my shoes go missing often, so I don't have any at the moment."

"Missing? What do you mean?"

"I'm sure it's just the Nargles," Luna said airily, but her eyes were faintly red. "Everything that goes missing turns up eventually, you know." She made to walk past Gabriel, but he quickly grabbed her wrist. Luna gasped as he pulled her hand up to eye level.

"And did the nargles write this, too?" There were thin cuts on the back of her hand, a single sentence still bleeding slightly; _I must not make things up._

Luna was staring at him with wide eyes, and didn't answer right away, but she didn't try to leave either.

"Luna."

"No," she admitted softly.

"What happened?" Gabriel asked quietly, making a conscious effort not to sound at all angry - he'd just make her panic if he did.

"I had detention with Umbridge."

Gabriel's eyes narrowed, and he let his thumb rub over the cuts, healing them, and dropped Luna's hand. "Go back to the common room."

"What will you do?" Luna didn't move, still watching him carefully.

"Nothing you need to worry about. Go back to the tower. It's late."

"Harry-"

Gabriel left in a rustle of wings and found the defense classroom, which was empty so late at night. He landed in the adjoining office and grimaced - the entire room was shrouded in pink and all sorts of horrible decorations.

_Snap. _Plain stone walls. Thank Dad. Gabriel thought he might have been traumatized.

Now, where were the torture tools? There was no way Umbridge would lower herself to actually carving it into Luna's hand [though she might have hired someone - Filch would certainly be willing, except no human could be that precise. Demons, yes, humans, no].

Gabriel emptied three of the drawers, scattering their contents across the room, before he located a flat case with four quills inside it that held a very strange and angry enchantment. One of them, with a brownish-red substance drying on the tip, had been used more recently than the others and no one had bothered to clean it off.

They were very definitely illegal, considering what Gabriel knew of the stringent ban on Dark objects - and if quills that, apparently, used the writer's blood as ink weren't Dark, then Voldemort could have been voted in as Minister of Magic.

Gabriel's eyes narrowed as he picked one up, examining it carefully and the magic it held. He tightened his grip and the quill shattered, bits of metal embedding themselves in the wall and leaving chips in the stone as the feather burned up and left only ash behind. Gabriel didn't bother to clean up the black smudges on the desk as he did the same for two more, pausing when he came to the last one.

After spending centuries as a Trickster, making a copy of the quill was nothing. Gabriel paused to destroy the last one before duplicating the copy three more times until there were four quills again, one still smudged with [fake] dried blood. The desk was wiped clean, drawers fixed, and not a single trace remained of Gabriel having ever been there, however painful it was to bring back the pink decorations.

Gabriel replaced he box of quills and shut the drawer. Umbridge would be getting a surprised next time she tried to use them on someone.

As an afterthought, several symbols etched themselves onto the wall and then faded out of the visible range of sight, moving upwards to settle on the walls of where the bedroom must be.

No need to make things pleasant for her here at Hogwarts.

As he left the room, Gabriel made sure to scatter a few candy bars on the ground under her desk.

* * *

Surprisingly enough, Gabriel had to go no farther than the fourth-year girl's dorm in Ravenclaw tower to find Luna's lost shoes, once he got around to it. Still in a Trickster mindset from his little raid on Umbridge, Gabriel considered the trunk he'd found them in. "What the hell."

No less than every single trunk in the room had something of Luna's in it, so it wasn't like the prank was _undeserved _or something ridiculous like that. And besides, it wasn't nearly as fatal as the rest of his tricks tended to be. Sure, he might be slightly out of practice, since his last stint as the Trickster had been months before his little meeting with Lucifer, but it wasn't like he'd forgotten everything to do with it.

Fifteen years wasn't that long, after all.

He left a little pile of found belongings on top of Luna's trunk and returned to the boy's dorms, grinning at the thought of what might happen the next morning.

He'd missed doing things like this.

* * *

**Okay, I know this is a pretty short chapter, but I didn't want to drag it out and I thought it would be a good place to end it. And anyway I'm the author here so I make the final decisions.**

**Also, please take a look at the poll I set up - it should be on the top of my profile, if you're interested in voting!**

**Read and review, and don't forget to please leave a review on 'Sigyn and Gabriel'!**


	39. The Trickster Returns

**Glad to hear from you all on the last chapter! Luckily no more disgruntled reviewers, so that was a nice surprise. I'm sure you're all eager to hear about what happened to Umbridge, though, so I'll try not to let this author's note drag on.**

**Also, I've taken a look at the poll I mentioned, which has resulted in a complete landslide victory for 'Hell Yes'. You can keep voting if you like, but the sequel to 'Sigyn and Gabriel' [no title as of yet, I'll probably just make it up once I go to post it] will be up at some point. I start school next week, so no guarantees as to when I'll finish it.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter**

* * *

Gabriel hid a smile behind his goblet as several of the Ravenclaw girls came down to breakfast that morning in borrowed, too-big shoes and sweaters and various other items of clothing. Luna, on the other hand, was wearing a pair of vibrantly patterned sneakers and smiling widely.

Umbridge, sitting at the head table, looked exhausted, though Gabriel paid her the barest of glances and only wondered whether or not she'd noticed the Muggle candy wrappers. Despite the effects of the trick Gabriel had left in her office, she looked incredibly pleased about something.

'Something' turned out to be the morning paper, which declared in bold letters on the front page that Umbridge had been declared '_first-ever Hogwarts high inquisitor'. _Whatever the hell that was.

Hermione brandished the paper at Gabriel. "This is ridiculous!" She had come over to the Ravenclaw table that morning, Ron trailing behind her. As she sat down, someone farther down the table tripped over their own feet [wearing large, obviously borrowed sneakers] and nearly hit their head on the table.

"What the hell is a 'high inquisitor'?" Michael asked, craning nir neck to try and read the article upside-down. Hermione read aloud from it.

"_In a surprise move last night the Ministry of Magic passed new legislation giving itself an unprecedented level of control at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. 'The Minister has been growing uneasy about goings-on at Hogwarts-"_

"More like he's a paranoid bastard," muttered Gabriel. Hermione gave him a look and kept reading.

"_-for some time,' said Junior assistant to the Minister, Percy Weasley."_

Ron said something [most likely offensive] under his breath. "So that's what he meant!"

"What d'you mean?" Michael looked over at Ron.

"Percy sent me this letter," Ron admitted. "It came last night, he was talking about the pride of being a prefect and all that nonsense, said I should avoid Harry - he doesn't...er...know, since he left over the summer. Got into a huge fight when he was promoted since dad reckoned Fudge just wanted to keep an eye on us. You know, since the Weasleys have always backed Dumbledore."

"Right," Gabriel agreed absentmindedly. "What else does it say?"

Hermione scanned over the article. "Fudge is the one who appointed her," she informed them, not looking up. "Apparently Dumbledore couldn't find anyone, so they passed a law that let him pick a teacher...an immediate success?! According to who?"

Michael sputtered. "They actually said that? Who's calling her a success?"

"Percy, apparently," said Gabriel, reading the upside-down words.

"Wait, there's more." Hermione propped up the paper slightly. " '_The Inquisitor will have powers to inspect her fellow teachers and make sure that they are up to Ministry standard. Professor Umbridge has been offered this post in addition to her own teaching job, and we are delighted to say that she has accepted.' _Delighted? They're probably thrilled! Their own little spy at Hogwarts..." Hermione descended into mutters which Gabriel guessed were nowhere near complimentary.

Ron leaned over to read the article as well. "Malfoy's in here too," he said spitefully. "His dad, anyway." Gabriel frowned at that. Malfoy Sr. had definitely been in the graveyard, so why hadn't he been caught in the act? Gabriel had warned Dumbledore about the death eaters there. Maybe the order hadn't gotten there in time.

"This is outrageous," said Hermione, finally raising her voice to an audible level. "This..._useless _teacher has been foisted on us, and now we've got to deal with her inspecting the other teachers!"

But Ron was grinning widely.

"Why are you so happy?" Michael asked, looking at Ron like he was a foreign creature.

"I can't _wait _to see her try and inspect McGonagall," Ron replied happily. "Umbridge won't know what's hit her."

Gabriel wondered somewhere in the back of his head whether he'd somehow become friends with Ron again, or if Ron was just there because Hermione was.

"We'd better get going," said Hermione, jumping up. "If she's inspecting Binns we wouldn't want to be late."

"Let's hope she's not in Charms," Michael muttered as they got up. "The last thing I need is to see Umbridge first thing in the morning."

"You haven't looked at the Friday schedule properly, have you."

* * *

Gabriel was surprised to find Luna in his ancient runes class, and a little less surprised when she immediately signed up to be his partner.

"Shouldn't you be in your own year?"

"I was pushed ahead," Luna replied. "Professor Vector seemed to think that the fourth-year class wasn't challenging enough."

Gabriel raised an eyebrow. "That's a high compliment to your talent."

"I suppose it is." Luna glanced around as they moved two desks to face each other so they could work together more easily. "The Nargles seem to have switched their attention," she told him as Vector handed out their assignment. "They haven't bothered me at all today."

"Lucky for you then, isn't it?"

"No, I don't think it's luck," Luna said mildly. "Someone must have used a Nargle repellent to keep them away from my things, but they haven't left completely."

"Oh, really?"

"Yes, there seems to still be a bad infestation of them in Ravenclaw tower. I counted at least four other people whose things have gone missing today."

"Sounds horrible. Maybe you should give them some advice on how to deal with it."

"I did, but I don't think they appreciated having to wait for everything to come back. They seem to be very clumsy as well - it might be the shoes, none of the ones they managed to borrow looked like they fit very well."

"Too bad."

"It is, isn't it?" Luna smiled as she pulled the paper closer. "I actually just switched to runes this year, so I wondered if you could help with some of this?"

* * *

It took three days before Gabriel came down to the Great Hall and found Umbridge missing from the staff table. Several of the teachers were conversing in hushed voices, and Hermione and Michael were already deep in conversation, this time at the Gryffindor table. In fact, everyone seemed to be having small, secret conversations.

"What's with the somber mood?" Gabriel asked as he sat down, the Gryffindors giving him only passing glances - they'd long ago gotten used to him and Michael showing up.

"It's Umbridge." Hermione leaned across the table to whisper.

"What about her?" _Finally!_

"She's in the hospital wing," Michael answered, wiping away Gabriel's newfound good mood.

"Seriously?" Gabriel didn't let a single trace of his disappointment show, either in his voice or on his face. "What for?"

"No one knows - except the teachers," Ron joined the conversation. "Something happened last night that seriously injured her, but no one's been told what it was. Some people are saying that the teachers were barely in time."

"You're saying someone tried to kill Umbridge?" Hermione said, flabbergasted. "Well - I know she wasn't a good teacher, but who would go that far?"

Michael shrugged. "You know what I heard?" Ne said, leaning over the table as if to form a small circle. "Fred and George mentioned it in passing before they left - they overheard McGonagall talking and say that the teachers reckon some sort of magical creature got into the castle."

"What creature does something like that?"

Gabriel glanced up and saw them all looking expectantly at him.

"What?" he asked irritably. There was no way they'd guessed that it was him.

"Have you ever heard of a creature that does something like this?" Ron asked, slightly awkwardly. "I mean, you'd know, right."

"Not necessarily," Gabriel replied, but he had just spotted an absolutely golden opportunity. "But as luck would have it, I might have heard of something."

"What?" All three of them leaned in closer.

"A Trickster," Gabriel said in a low voice. "Never really met one-" Technically true. "-but I've seen the results of a couple of their tricks. They're sort of like demigods, and immortal, going back to Loki and Anasi, who were a couple of the first Tricksters. There was an Aztec trickster too, I think, but I can never pronounce their names. Usually, they appear as human, but they can look like anything they want to."

"What do they do?" Hermione asked, immersed in the new information.

"They basically go after the high-and-mighty, knock them down a peg," Gabriel explained, "They like creating mayhem. But they've got a humorous streak - deadly pranks and the like. It's like, I don't know - sending an army of Muggleborns to kill Voldemort."

"That would never work," Ron scoffed.

"It was just an example," Gabriel shot back. l

"But how powerful are they?" Hermione asked, bringing back Gabriel's attention.

Gabriel shrugged. "I can't give you an exact answer. Pretty damn powerful, though - they can create anything, and it'll be totally real. Even people. I mean, they're not technically real people, but they're not just illusions. And can do plenty of other things besides that."

Michael looked slightly disbelieving. "Wouldn't that go against some law of magic or another?"

"I don't think they use the same kind of magic you guys have." Gabriel grinned. "Sort of like me, right?"

"Shouldn't you be more careful about saying that?" asked Ron, glancing around.

"Not really. If I don't want someone to hear something, they won't hear it."

Hermione frowned. "Is there a way to tell if it's a Trickster?"

"There's one sure-fire way." Gabriel leaned back, grinning. "Candy wrappers."

"I'm sorry?"

"Tricksters will leave them everywhere - they've got a hell of a sweet tooth, they eat candy all the time."

"Sort of like you," Michael laughed. "Sounds like something you'd do if Hermione wasn't here."

Hermione gave them both dark looks with no real heat behind them and Gabriel shrugged, still grinning. "Maybe. Point is, if it was a Trickster that put Umbridge in the hospital wing, there's going to be candy wrappers somewhere." Idly, he wondered if anyone had found the wrappers he'd left in Umbridge's office.

"So what, we sneak in and look?" Michael questioned with an air of exasperation. "That's going to be impossible."

"Of course not. Just keep your eyes open and look."

"Harry, I doubt any wrappers will still be there," Hermione said, smiling slightly.

"I didn't say that. Because there's another thing about Tricksters-" Gabriel leaned forward. "They never take just one victim."

* * *

News of the Trickster seemed to have spread all over Hogwarts by that night, and groups of huddled students discussed it during their new free periods while Dumbledore looked for a new defense teacher. It was now taken as fact by the majority of the student population that it was a Trickster that had attacked Umbridge in her office. While Michael and Hermione were bewildered as to how the news got out, they didn't question it - and as for how anyone else had found out, Gabriel had basically told them the reason. If he didn't want someone to hear something, they wouldn't hear it, but the opposite was also true.

Gabriel, however, had other concerns that night.

"Fucking wizards," he muttered as he strode invisibly along the hallways - his wings got sore if he used them too often. "They ruin _everything. _Can't even properly _kill_ someone without them interfering. It's none of their business but oh no, we have to save her, because we are morons who don't know when to keep their noses out of it!"

The hospital wing was nearly empty, but it seemed like Gabriel was not the only one paying a late-night visit.

"How is Professor Umbridge?" Dumbledore asked, robes trailing over the floor.

"As well as can be said for someone in that condition," Madam Pomfrey sighed. "Some Healers from St Mungo's came over - they wanted to see what might have caused it."

St Mungo's? What the hell was that, a wizarding hospital?

"I see. How long will she be away?"

"I couldn't say - I'd say they'll keep her at St Mungo's for a week, at least, not counting an observation period. I patched her up as best I could."

_Shit. _Umbridge wasn't here anymore?

"No one is blaming you, Poppy," Dumbledore said reassuringly as Gabriel resisted the urge to swear profusely and possibly kick something.

"Yes, but Albus-" Madam Pomfrey drew closer. "The state she was in - what could have done that?"

"I have no way of knowing for sure. I am sure the students have come up with their own theory by now."

"I've heard them talking - do you think there's any truth to it?"

"That there is a Trickster in our school?" Dumbledore sighed. "I do not know. I cannot claim to have any experience with something like this. But I did find this, while sweeping her office." There was a crinkle as Dumbledore drew something out of his pocket.

"What's this?" More crinkling, and Madam Pomfrey's confusion was evident. "Muggle candy?"

"We may be dealing with something very old, and something the likes of which I have never seen before." Dumbledore said heavily.

Oh yes, they were. And if they were going to keep Umbridge in some sort of mysterious hospital, then Gabriel was going to make the absolute best he could of the situation at hand.

* * *

Umbridge's hospitalization was the front page of the newspaper that day, but unfortunately it provided no more insight as to the location of 'St Mungo's' than Dumbledore had. There were also no details as to what had happened to her, so none of the students save Gabriel knew exactly what had happened.

He had designed the trick, after all.

"They don't say anything about what might have gotten her," said Hermione, scanning the article as they walked, having all four of them decided to enjoy the grounds on the abnormally nice day. "You know, Harry, I'm beginning to think that it might have really been a Trickster."

"You wouldn't know how to defend against one, would you?" Ron asked.

"Sure," Gabriel. "Don't be an asshole to anyone and you're probably good."

"That's hardly helpful," Hermione muttered.

"I'm serious," Gabriel said, glancing over at her. "Tricksters go after assholes. Say the Slytherins kept cheating at the broom game-"

"Quidditch." Michael interrupted, looking back at Gabriel over nir shoulder.

"Whatever. But say the captain kept cheating - the Trickster might cause an accident in the game so that he can't play again, or maybe take a look at some sort of fictional character who cheats a lot and send them after the captain."

"You can't sick fictional characters on people," Hermione protested.

"Tricksters can - they just create a version of that character in real life, complete with whatever powers they might have." Gabriel shrugged. "I said they were powerful, remember?"

"That's ridiculous, though." Hermione looked faintly worried. "Something like that - I mean, that powerful - it can't exist!"

Gabriel arched an eyebrow, giving her a _seriously? _look. "Can't it?"

Hermione realized her mistake. "Oh - well, I mean, of course _you _exist-"

"Who's more powerful?" Ron asked. "You or the Trickster?"

Gabriel gave him an affronted look. "Me, obviously." Archangels outranked Tricksters in every way possible, even though he was technically both.

"When was the last time you met a Trickster?" Michael questioned, slowing down to fall back next to Gabriel.

"Never, remember?" Gabriel reminded nir. "Never met one. I have heard of some of their tricks, though."

"Well, what were they like?"

"Well..." Gabriel racked his mind for one of his better tricks. Not the mystery spot, that had been a bit violent, and it would take too long to explain anyway. "There was one time - a guy who was known for having anger management problems, kept beating people up - especially his wife."

"Oh, that's horrible." Hermione said, shaking her head.

"Exactly, that's why the Trickster went after him. So he took the Hulk - he's a comic book character, basically a guy who turns into this enormous monster when he's angry. Anyway, the Trickster snaps up his own version of the Hulk-" Gabriel drew a line across his throat. "Bam. Head gone. It was blamed on a bear, I think."

"They sound pretty violent," said Michael, who contrary to nir words didn't look very surprised or even pale.

"They're old," Gabriel replied. "All the really old beings can be pretty vicious."

"...Including you?" Hermione asked tentatively.

Gabriel turned around to face her, the group slowly coming to a halt.

"You know," Gabriel said eventually, "You're only asking that because you've only seen one side of me." He grinned and patted her on the shoulder.

"So is that a yes?" Ron questioned nervously.

Gabriel laughed. "Calm down. I like you. You're safe from whatever smiting you think is coming, believe me."

"Because you _like _us?" Gabriel swung around, laughing over Hermione's incredulous question.

"Bet none of you can skip a stone halfway across the lake!"

* * *

Over the next few days, a trade similar to the one which had sprung up during the whole Chamber of Secrets fiasco made its rounds in the student population.

People had flooded the library, looking for books which so much as alluded in even the vaguest of ways to Tricksters and how to protect yourself from them, and Gabriel laughed his ass off in private at some of the things people had come up with - some of which were cons to get money from younger, more gullible students, and some of which were completely serious but so, so wrong.

It's not like any of them would have worked on Gabriel anyway.

The teachers didn't seem to notice the artifact trade, but they did notice the growing restlessness and nervous energy. Even the staff seemed to be affected - from what Michael said, Trelawney had taken to predicting even darker and more perilous ends for a growing number of his classmates.

Gabriel was almost tempted to sit in and get a few ideas, because after the exact definition of what a Trickster was had circulated, people were keeping a tight lid on any 'high and mighty' thoughts or actions.

Of course, Gabriel didn't really care about that. Mostly, he was berating himself for somehow having forgotten about Snape.

Jackpot.

Gabriel had to take time to prepare, of course, if he wanted everything to go smoothly [what he'd dubbed 'the idiot box' took energy, if not time, to make], and so it was several more days before the Potions master abruptly disappeared.

As with Umbridge, people panicked, but no one seemed very worried about the man except for the teachers. Gabriel let him stew for a few days [who knew how long it had been for Snape] before going to see how things were going.

One step into the Trickster box made him know that he had definitely picked the right target.

* * *

**Yes. Yes I am really going to end it there. Have fun with this chapter, please leave more reviews on 'Sigyn and Gabriel'! The sequel should be up eventually, but that means this next chapter will be slightly delayed. Apologies!  
**

**Read and review!**


	40. Snape and Student Rebellion

**Glad to see you were all so enthusiastic about the last chapter; we've hit 580 reviews! Did I mention that you guys are awesome?**

**In case you didn't notice already, I finished and published the sequel to 'Sigyn and Gabriel', so it should be available now - go take a look, leave a review and let me know what you think!**

**IMPORTANT NOTE: I went back and edited some stuff in earlier chapters, starting with chap 30 and working my way up to the last one. It's all pretty subtle stuff, and you might not notice it if you go back and reread it, but I can promise that it's Very Important Foreshadowing for a plot event that will take place roughly sixth year. So if you want to go back and see if you can find it, go ahead - I'm just letting you know that it's changed so reviwers later don't say that I 'didn't set it up at all'.**

**In other matters, read on; I hope you enjoy the trick Gabriel set up for Snape.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter**

* * *

Gabriel thought that his little Snape box was working well - maybe it wasn't as entertaining as the Winchester's escapades had been, but it was a lot more specific, so there was that to take into account.

He'd needed to take a quick little rummage through the man's history to find the right settings, and boy had he really hit the jackpot with this one.

Snape was going to _flip_ his _shit._

Gabriel sniggered as he watched the man. He had rewound to the moment Snape first found himself in the 'classroom', and at the moment Snape was looking around at his surroundings in utter bewilderment. The 'students' continued to work, seemingly oblivious to the presence of a grown man in their midst, though that might have been because Gabriel had replaced his robes with regular 'Muggle' clothing, as Snape would call it.

Currently, Gabriel was sitting a few rows behind Snape, avidly watching the proceedings. This was going to be great. He was disguised as a high schooler, with dark skin and darker hair, since there was no reason for him to look like Harry Potter here and if Snape actually figured it out he'd just use his default Trickster disguise - aka, his last vessel.

"Dude, are you going to help?"

"What?"

"Are you gonna help?" The girl sitting next to Snape held out an empty test tube. "We have to get this done by the end of the period - partners, remember?"

"I am not your partner," Snape snarled.

"Whatever, just help out, okay? I'm not failing Chemistry because of you."

Snape glared fiercely at her. The girl frowned back. "What is up with you?"

"What in Merlin's name is that supposed to mean?"

The girl looked at him critically. "Are you _high?"_

"I have _no idea-"_

The teacher swooped down on them in a manner not unlike Snape's. "Miss Milton. Mr. Snape. Is something the matter here?"

"He says I've got to do all the work," the girl said immediately, looking up at the teacher with wide eyes.

"I said no such-"

The teacher turned on Snape with what looked like vindictive pleasure. "Shirking your work again, Snape? Tsk, tsk, I'm afraid that will be a zero for today."

Snape sputtered for a moment. "This is outrageous-"

"If you couldn't handle my class, then why did you sign up for it?" The teacher challenged.

"I did not sign up for this!"

"Oh, really? Then I suppose your name is on my roster for no reason? And that you didn't come to me last term asking to switch to my class?"

"I would never-"

"Detention, Mr. Snape. I do not tolerate those who refuse to do their fair share of work."

"_What?" _Snape was the textbook picture of furious indignation.

"Two day's detention."

"This is-"

"Three days. I could go on, Mr. Snape."

Snape sneered at the teacher for all he was worth. "You cannot give me detention!"

"Can't I? You seem unaware who is the student in this relationship, Mr. Snape."

"I am not your student!" Snape shouted, standing up. "This is _ridiculous-"_

"Mr. Snape!" Snape paid no attention and whirled around, heading for the door. As he passed Gabriel's table, a mixture inside one of the test tubes bubbled and explode, Gabriel shoving himself backwards to avoid the worst of it. Snape, however, was not so lucky, receiving a face full of ash and smoke.

"Whoa, sorry!"

"Idiot!" Snape snapped, reaching for where he must have usually concealed his wand and freezing when he found it missing.

"Something wrong?" Gabriel dug into the backpack which was in the seat next to him for authenticity. "Look, here, I've got some M&Ms if you want-"

Snape gave him his best withering glare and strode out of the classroom, the teacher still shouting behind him.

"Rude," Gabriel muttered, as his surroundings blurred and he was on the other side of the door and in a new shape [this time he looked distinctly like one of the Weasley twins, except slightly different and with less freckles]. Snape was looking around himself in shock again.

The door had led to a brand-new scenario, this one looking identical to the Potions dungeons in Hogwarts, and Snape's clothing had reverted to his usual batlike robes. Snape, however, looked very suspicious.

Obviously, he knew it wouldn't be that easy. He was a bit smarter than Gabriel had given him credit for.

He strode out of the dungeons, banging the door open and almost immediately running into a redheaded woman, causing her to drop all of the books and scrolls she was carrying.

"Merlin, Severus! What was that for?"

Snape was staring at the woman in astonishment, shock, and something like hope. "_Lily?"_

Lily frowned as she bent down to pick up her things. "No need to sound so surprised - I do work here. What are _you _doing here?"

"What am-" Snape was still staring at her. "You work here?"

Lily frowned harder, looking worried. "Severus, I've been working here for the last ten years. Has something happened to you?"

Snape was looking more and more confused. "But - the Dark Lord-"

"The what?" Lily looked very worried now. "What are you talking about?"

"The Dark Lord!"

"Severus, _what _dark lord? There hasn't been one since Grindelwald!"

Snape stared at her with his mouth hanging open slightly.

"Something's happened," Lily decided. "I'm taking you to Madam Pomfrey, you've obviously been hexed or _something."_

"I haven't-" Verbal was the only kind of protest Snape made as Lily dragged him up the staircases through Hogwarts, which was exactly identical to the real version. Gabriel had spent too much time exploring for it to be anything otherwise.

Slightly bored with the proceedings, Gabriel fast-forwarded [for lack of a better word] until he caught a glimpse of Snape storming out of a room and 'paused' there.

Snape was muttering furiously under his breath and Gabriel took the opportunity to round the corner and stop just short of crashing into him, a Hershey bar in one hand.

"Watch where you're going!" Snape snapped, too distracted to get off a glare or even the tiniest sneer. Gabriel must have guessed right in thinking that 'Lily' would unsettle him.

"Sorry," Gabriel said, snapping off a piece of the chocolate and popping it into his mouth. Snape's eyes darted over to him and he frowned minutely, as if puzzling over something. His eyes flickered over the chocolate bar [the Muggle wrapper obvious] and then over Gabriel.

"Something wrong?" Gabriel asked, sounding as sincere as he could and edging past Snape like he was just a kid trying to get away from the creepy guy who was staring at him way to intently.

Snape suddenly lunged at Gabriel and with a quick snap of his fingers Gabriel sent him off into the next scenario. With the hallway suddenly empty, Gabriel took another bite of the chocolate bar.

"I'll give him one thing," he said aloud to himself. "He figured it out pretty quickly." Then again, Gabriel had been rather obvious, so it might not count.

But why stand here when Snape was off stumbling through the other half of the box? Gabriel let Hogwarts vanish around him and stepped into the current disaster.

This pattern continued on for some time - Snape would find himself in a completely new scenario, and have to figure out the rules as he went, as everyone seemed determined to only give him the barest of clues as to what he was supposed to be doing, with no real details. The most commonly-used phrase was 'Aren't you smart enough to figure this out on your own?'

Honestly, Gabriel was a bit surprised that Snape hadn't figured out the point of all this yet. He had figured out that Gabriel was the Trickster even under disguise, and yet he didn't seem to be able to grasp exactly what he was supposed to be doing.

Well, less doing, more going through.

Gabriel was one of the people he encountered in every single scenario - a sniper, a passenger on a bus, a storekeeper, an authority figure in a completely made-up world that Gabriel had created just for shits and giggles. Half the time, Snape only noticed who he was once candy had come into play, but after the fourteenth time they'd started a new 'play' he began to get faster at identifying Gabriel.

Gabriel was standing in the kitchen of a house with several other constructs when he became aware of Snape standing behind him.

"Something wrong?" He asked, turning around. "Need help figuring out the toaster again?"

"I know what you are," Snape said threateningly.

"O...kay...incredibly stalkerish and serial-killer like statement aside, what the hell are you talking about?"

"You know exactly what I mean, _Trickster,_" Snape snarled. "Release me from this parody world."

"Are you drunk?"

"Enough!" Snape strode forward with two quick steps and pushed Gabriel up against a nearby wall. "No more games!"

_Fzzt._

Snape glanced around at the noise, and stopped, staring, when he noticed that everyone in the room had frozen. It was a party scenario, so a room full of absolutely still constructs was pretty creepy.

"Sorry," Gabriel dragged out the word, letting himself bleed back into the short, amber-eyed figure. "Games are kind of in my job description."

"Then play them on your own," Snape growled.

"Or what?" Gabriel scoffed, pulling Snape's arm away from his neck with a purposefully tight grip. "Don't see your wand - and I really doubt you can kill me."

"Really?" Snape challenges, and he let what was obviously supposed to be a stake slide into his hand, the tip stained red.

Gabriel raised his eyebrows at it and whistled. "Wow. How long did it take you to make that? No, let me guess - your blood?"

Snape didn't answer, but his hand tightened around the makeshift stake which looked like it had been made out of one of the stair posts.

"Really. Counting yourself as one of my victims? You know that refers to those I've already finished with, right?" Gabriel let a flicker of 'worry' pass over his face - no need to discourage the man. "Good luck getting ahold of something like that. I mean, it's not like you could go track down Umbridge, right?"

"So that was you."

"_Obviously." _Gabriel rolled his eyes. "And here I was thinking that you were supposed to be smart."

Snape's eyes darkened and he half-raised the stake with a sharp movement, and Gabriel let his eyes flicker briefly to the stake. He raised one hand and snapped, the wooden mess vanishing from Snape's hand.

"Much better," he said cheerfully. "It's very hard to have a civil discussion when one person is threatening the other."

"I would hardly call this civil," Snape replied acidly.

Gabriel snorts. "Not with you, no. Come on! Do you even know what the point of all this is? Have you been able to figure that much out?"

"I am here because you enjoy causing trouble."

Gabriel laughed in his face at that. "Wizards know _nothing _of Tricksters, don't they?" He wagged his finger at Snape, walking around absentmindedly. "There is always a reason, and just because you're too stubborn to see it doesn't mean it's not there."

"And what...lesson...would you have me learn?" Snape's voice was heavy with disdain.

"Now, what kind of Trickster would I be if I just told you?" Gabriel grinned at Snape. "Have fun." He snapped his fingers and the man was gone in a second, the scenario bleeding away until Gabriel found himself on his bed in the Ravenclaw dorms, about ten minutes after he'd first gone into the 'idiot box'.

"Boring," he complained to himself, sliding onto the floor. "Eh, I'll just check back later and see if he's got it yet."

* * *

"Where were you earlier?" Michael asked as Gabriel slid into the neighboring seat in Transfiguration. "I checked in the dorm but I didn't see you."

"I was in Muriel's room," Gabriel lied, a tiny twinge of guilt making itself known that he was lying to Michael. "Just brushing up on some stuff."

Michael gave Gabriel a look that said he wasn't fooled. Huh. That was a first. "How'd you get here so quickly, then?"

"Flew."

Michael gave Gabriel a long look.

"What are you being so suspicious for?"

"Settle down, now." McGonagall interrupted Michael's answer, standing at the front of the classroom. "Now, today we will be learning about the Vanishing spell..."

Class passed quickly [even if Gabriel did cheat a little to get all of his mouse to vanish] and the short conversation was all but forgotten as they left the classroom.

"Oh!" Michael caught Gabriel's shoulder. "I almost forgot - Hermione said she wanted to talk to you later."

"Later today? Why?"

Michael shrugged. "She didn't feel like telling me, but she and Ron have been cooking something up recently."

Gabriel leaned up against the wall. "Okay, so talk during dinner or something?"

"That's the thing. She asked if we could meet her in the common room."

"_Her _common room?"

"Yeah. Late at night, or something, I guess."

Gabriel whistled. "Didn't expect her to be so daring. She give you the password?"

Michael nodded. "She said it had to be today since it's Friday, and she didn't want us to stay up late the night before classes. Can you bring your cloak?"

"Er-" Gabriel considered that. "That would be a bit difficult. I'll explain later."

"What, did you lose it?"

"Of course not. I just told you, I'll explain later."

"Fine," Michael relented. "You're in charge of making us invisible."

"Or we could-"

"_You're in charge of making us invisible."_

"Michael, I get all tingly when you take control like that."

* * *

Midnight that night, Michael was waiting in the common room for Gabriel, who was in fact already in the Gryffindor one waiting for everyone else to leave. He was standing invisibly in one of the corners and trying to subtly, mentally persuade a very stubborn seventh year that they should go up to their dorm and seriously considering just zapping them asleep and into their bed.

Finally, though, the seventh year left, and Gabriel flew back quickly to Ravenclaw tower to get Michael.

Michael jumped slightly as Gabriel appeared in front of him. "Don't do that!"

"Sorry," said Gabriel, cheerfully and entirely unapologetic. "Ready to go?" He didn't wait for a 'yes' before putting a hand on Michael's shoulder and suddenly they were both in the Gryffindor common room, right in between Ron, Hermione, and the fire.

Ron shoved himself backwards forcefully and upended a bottle of ink, while Hermione jumped violently and Michael grabbed onto the nearest chair in an attempt to keep himself steady.

"Bloody hell!"

"_Ron!"_

"You're the one who asked us to come, don't sound so surprised." Gabriel took a seat, flopping into an empty armchair. "Holy shit these are really comfortable." He wiggled around, draping his legs over one arm and leaning up against the other. "So what did you want to talk about?"

Hermione recovered from the surprise. "Well, I expected you to come through the door - er, anyway, Ron and I have been talking."

"That's new."

Hermione gave him an unimpressed look. "_As I was saying, _we were talking about how our replacement defense teacher is totally useless."

"No kidding." The replacement Dumbledore had found was a shaky, newbie Auror who refused to teach them anything but the theory, citing 'Ministry standards'.

"So we were thinking we should do something about it," Ron continued, glancing at Michael, who had taken a seat in one of the other unoccupied chairs and was listening intently.

"Let me guess," said Gabriel, raising one finger. "You've already thought of a 'something'."

"Sort of," Hermione admitted. "We were thinking of doing some sort of club."

"A club?" Michael frowned slightly, his brows drawing together.

"Like defense club," Hermione elaborated. "Where we teach spells and stuff, since the class isn't helping at all."

"And you propose we do this, how?"

"Well, obviously we'd have to keep it a secret." Ron jumped in. "But we thought - er - maybe..."

"I could teach?" Gabriel guessed the rest of his sentence. "That's why you told me about all this."

"We were going to tell you anyway," Hermione protested. "But yes, we-" Ron made a slicing motion across his throat. "-Fine, _I, _thought you would be the most experienced."

"And do you have any idea how we're supposed to gain members for this club, while also keeping it a secret? Or where we're supposed to hold it?"

"Er-"

"Or were you just going to figure that out as you went."

"Look," Hermione said, looking put out, "If you don't like the idea-"

"Who says I don't like it? I think it sounds like the most interesting idea since the school got caught up in all this Trickster madness."

"Interesting?" Ron questioned.

Gabriel grinned sharply at him. "A secret club going against ministry policy sounds pretty illegal, don't you think? Hell yeah I'm in. I'm just pointing out your plan could use some improving."

"So what do you suggest?" Hermione asked, relaxing slightly.

Gabriel shrugged. "There's only one place I can think of that's secret enough, and that wouldn't work if Ginny wanted to join."

"Why not?" Michael asked, not as sharply as Gabriel might have expected a boyfriend to react. Gabriel glanced at him curiously - oh, ne and Ginny had broken up. Gabriel must have missed that.

"Well, I really doubt she'd want to go _back _to the Chamber of Secrets."

Ron looked rather pale at the mention of that. "Wouldn't that be all dark and stuff?"

"Well, yes, and the gigantic snake corpse, but we could clean it up." Gabriel scoffed. "Honestly, did magic not occur to you? Also, I'm the only one who can open the door, so no one would be able to get the jump on us."

"Well-" Ron looked reluctant. "What about Ginny?"

"I could stand it." Gabriel was the only one who didn't jump, having sensed Ginny come down about ten minutes ago.

"Ginny!"

"I don't care where you have it," Ginny said determinedly, coming to stand behind Hermione's chair. "I dealt with the stuff that happened in the Chamber and seeing it again isn't going to send me into a panic attack."

"You sure?" Gabriel asked - not unkindly, but with one eyebrow arched.

Ginny sent him a glare, unbothered by his angel status.

"You're sure," Gabriel concluded. "Well then, how are we supposed to get members?"

Hermione straightened. "That," she said, "Is something I can take care of."

* * *

**Woo. You all finally know what happened to Snape.**

**I'm going to put this here because the top one is a little long - I got a review recently that said [as most of you can probably relate to] that they weren't too sharp on Norse Mythology and would like a concrete explanation as to what had happened to the kids.**

**While I can promise that one _is _coming, I can't say that it's coming soon. Why? Because when it does happen, I want to be able to realistically work it into the story. Personally, I think Gabriel doesn't spill anything to people about himself unless he's super close to them. _Especially _not something like that. As you saw earlier, he even refused to tell Balthazar.**

**As another personal note, I think there are only a couple people in the world that he'd tell, if they asked. And one of those people will show up. Eventually. Just stick with me until we get there, alright?**

**Read and review, please! And don't forget about 'Second Chances and Endings' which is the promised sequel to 'Sigyn and Gabriel'.**


	41. In Which There is Cleaning & A Meeting

**You guys are incredibly enthusiastic reviewers, did you know that? I turn my computer on in the morning and there are 12 new reviews. 12 reviews in less than 12 hours. Thank you.**

**But 12 reviews on this and only one new one on 'The Second and the End'? Come on guys. You're killing me here. You _asked _for the sequel, now let me know what you thought!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter**

* * *

It was somehow decided that they would all go down to the chamber the next day and figure out what to do with it - sans Ginny, of course, who despite the insistence that she would be fine refused to go anywhere near it while the basilisk was still there.

So that was how Gabriel found himself standing in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom on a Saturday, accompanied by several confused wizards and one witch.

"The entrance is in a bathroom?" Hermione questioned, looking around skeptically.

"Hey, I didn't build it." Gabriel walked over to the sinks, looking for the snake that showed the entrance. "Here it is - §open.§"

Ron jumped at the sudden strangled hissing noise [and Gabriel was still really curious as to how, exactly, that worked] and all three of them watched in fascination as the sink descended into the floor, revealing a long pipe which was still absolutely filthy.

"Wow, it's even dirtier than I remembered." Gabriel peered over the edge, and whistled. "Anyone know any cleaning spells?"

"Couldn't you just use your power?" Michael asked.

"I could." Gabriel snapped his fingers, the grime vanishing from the pipe. "Unfortunately this thing doesn't have any stairs, so we'll have to slide down. I vote that Ron goes first."

"Why me?" Ron demanded. "Why not you?"

"Because I just cleaned off the entire thing and I've got to go last to close it behind us, remember? Get in the damn pipe before someone walks in on us."

"Honestly," Hermione huffed, walking forward. "_I'll _go first, if it's that big of a deal." She stepped up to the edge of the pipe and looked down nervously.

"Watch out for the skeletons at the bottom," Gabriel warned cheerfully. Hermione shot him a look that said she wasn't sure whether or not he was joking, but she took a deep breath, sat on the edge, and pushed herself in.

"Next?" Gabriel looked at Ron and Michael as Hermione vanished down the pipe.

"What the hell," Michael muttered, and jumped in without any sort of pretense. Ron eyed the pipe in worry, taking a few steps forward.

"You were joking about the skeletons, right?"

Gabriel rolled his eyes and pushed Ron in. He waited for the yells to fade a little bit and then stepped inside himself.

It was remarkably easy to stay still at the top when you made yourself float.

"§Close.§"

Gabriel let himself fall as the sink ground back into place and bent the space of the pipe as he went, making it much shorter while still connecting the bathroom and the chamber, so that it would be that much easier to get back up to the school. When he landed at the bottom, he was greeted by a pale-faced Hermione.

"I thought you were _joking!"_

"Well I never said they were human skeletons," Gabriel retorted, vanishing the skeletal mess under their feet as he stood up. "And let me remind you that this was your idea, not mine."

He walked forward across the now-clean floor, noting that the chamber was identical to how he'd left it - giant snakeskin and all.

"Holy shit!"

"That's not the actual snake, you know." The skin was still strewn about the antechamber, as poisonous green as it had been the last time Gabriel was down here.

"Merlin," Hermione breathed. "It's _huge._"

Gabriel nodded. "That it was, Hermione, and you're welcome for me killing it." He stepped over the skin, which vanished in the thought. "Come on, the actual chamber is this way."

"There's more of this?" Michael shook his head as he followed Gabriel. "How much space did Slytherin need?"

"Judging by the snake? A lot."

* * *

Words seemed to fail the trio as they stared at the body of the basilisk, still lying on its side on the floor of the main chamber.

"You know," Gabriel mused, striding forward and completely ignoring the giant corpse, "I didn't really pay attention before, but this place is filthy."

Michael made a small noise that might have indicated exasperation. "That's really all you're going to comment on?"

"Well, I already saw the snake, so yeah." Gabriel spun around to face them. Hermione was still staring at the basilisk, and Ron was looking a little bit pale, but Michael seemed to have mostly recovered.

"So..." he walked forward cautiously. "You're sure there's nothing else in here?"

"Nope." Gabriel frowned at a dark brown stain on the floor, which dripped all over the place before mixing with a larger black spot. "Huh."

Hermione did another double take when she saw what Gabriel was looking at. "Is that blood?"

"Probably." Gabriel glanced around at the spotted trail. "I must have moved around more than I remembered." His attention drifted back to the basilisk, and Gabriel frowned thoughtfully - should he just vanish it all in one swoop?

"That's _your _blood?" Hermione stepped away from it quickly.

"Well, I can guarantee that it wasn't Ginny's, because if she'd lost that much she wouldn't have recovered nearly as quickly," Gabriel said, deciding to just vanish the lot of the snake and snapping his fingers to do so. The chamber looked much bigger as soon as it vanished. "Though an argument could be made as to how, technically, it's my - er, Harry's blood."

Hermione gave Gabriel a calculating look but didn't call him out on the blunder. "Can't you get rid of it?"

"Sure." _Snap. _The brownish stains vanished, but the dry ink remained. Frowning, Gabriel tried again, and it still resisted his efforts. "Huh." Gabriel poked it with his foot. "That's some pretty dark stuff."

Michael glanced at the dark spot warily. "You can't get rid of it?"

"I can," said Gabriel, using his best insulted voice. "But it's probably better if I wait until you three are gone so I don't burn out anyone's eyes."

"Oh," said Ron, who had been mostly quiet. "Alright then. So, er - what do we do?"

"Well, if any of you feel like chipping in and trying to make this place somewhat habitable, feel free."

* * *

A few hours later, the Chamber looked like it had undergone a sort of deep-clean, courtesy of Gabriel shoving everyone else out of the room so he could get rid of the ink stain from the soul-shard diary and man, how did Voldemort manage to be so irritating when he probably wasn't even within a hundred miles of the place?

Hermione had ordered them all to meet her in a shady bar called the Hog's Head that Hogsmeade weekend, and Gabriel was practically held against the wall and sworn to obedience when it came to Hermione making sure that he came.

"Anyone who comes is going to be expecting you to be there, anyway," she said, "So you can't skip out or else they'll think you're lying."

"What, about Voldemort? Come on, Hermione, I've got more important things to think over than a bunch of preteens' opinions."

But Hermione glared so fiercely that eventually Gabriel just went along with it to stop her from looking up 'ways to trap angels' and trying to forcefully drag him into Hogsmeade.

The crowd of twenty-something students, however, was totally unexpected.

"I thought you said _some _people?" Gabriel hissed, his face not betraying anything. "We need to work on your counting skills, Hermione."

Hermione gave him a dirty look. "It was a little more popular than I expected."

"A _little?"_

In twos and threes the large group settled around the table which Michael had found, near the back of the rather empty pub - Gabriel made sure that even if anyone were listening, they wouldn't be able to make out what any of them were saying.

It wouldn't do to be found out before they even started, after all.

Hermione cleared her throat once she realized that everyone was staring at the four of them expectantly, with a couple stray eyes lingering on Cedric, who was one of the first people to show up.

"Well - er - hi," Hermione said eventually. "Er...you all know why you're here - I had an idea that it would be good for us to - I mean, that it might be good for people to actually study Defense Against the Dark Arts - and I mean actually study it, not the rubbish that the professor teaches us, because no one can seriously call _that _defense." Her voice got stronger as she continued.

"Hear, hear," said Anthony, who for some reason had shown up and was avoiding looking at Gabriel.

"And by that, I mean learning to defend ourselves properly - the real spells, not just theory, anyway-"

Michael interrupted. "And I'll bet all of you want to pass your Defense OWL, right?"

Several people nodded and exchanged glances. There was one girl sitting next to Cedric's girlfriend who could not have looked more clearly like she wanted to be anywhere but in the dingy pub, but she was one out of twenty-five, so Gabriel didn't pay too much attention.

"Well, yes, Michael," said Hermione, shooting him a no doubt meaningful _shut up _glance, "But also because we've got to be properly trained in defense, because..." she took a deep breath. "Because Voldemort's back."

There was the usual cacophony of reactions - one girl spilled her Butterbeer down her front - but their attention remained fixed on Hermione.

"That's the plan, anyway," Hermione continued. "If you want to join us, we need-"

"Where's the proof You-Know-Who's back?" asked a student with a Hufflepuff scarf suddenly.

Funny. Cedric had given Gabriel the idea that they were all on his side.

"Dumbledore believes it-" Ron started.

"Dumbledore believes _him_," said the Hufflepuff, jerking his head at Gabriel.

"And me," Cedric pointed out, somewhat stiffly. "Zacharias, I told you about all this already."

Oh Christ. His name was Zacharias? Gabriel could already see him causing problems, if he was anything like Gabriel's brother.

"Look," Hermione was swift to try and intervene, "That's not what this meeting's supposed to be about. We're here to discuss the club we're forming, but if you're here for an account of what happened last year you can leave right now."

Zacharias shifted in his seat uncomfortably but didn't get up.

"So," Hermione continued in a firm voice, but Gabriel could tell she was still nervous. "We'll need to figure things out, like how often we'll meet-"

"Is it true that you can do a Patronus?" A ginger girl interrupted.

Gabriel realized she was talking to him. "Me? Yeah. Why?" There was a shift around the group as people sat straighter in interest.

"One of the ghosts said you did," she admitted. "I was talking to the Grey Lady and she mentioned it."

The Grey Lady must have been the Ravenclaw ghost's name.

"I never knew that," said a boy with dreadlocks, looking impressed. "A Patronus is supposed to be really difficult."

"You know," said a boy Gabriel was fairly sure was a year or so below him in Ravenclaw, "I was in Dumbledore's office last year, and one of the portraits said you killed a basilisk with the sword Dumbledore's got in there. Is that true, too?"

Dumbledore had put the sword up as decoration? Gabriel had just stuffed it back in the Hat when all was said and done - he really couldn't be bothered messing about with whatever secret room Gryffindor had, and the sword was honestly a nightmare. It would have been embarrassing to use - all those rubies and whatnot. Ridiculous.

"Course it's true," Gabriel replied, making everyone who didn't already know stare in outright shock. "You didn't think the whole mess with the chamber solved itself, did you? And speaking of the Chamber, I hope no one's got a problem with visiting it."

There was absolute silence after this declaration.

"Sorry," said Cedric eventually. "_Visiting _the Chamber of secrets?"

Gabriel arched an eyebrow at him. "Do you have a better idea of where we should meet? It's secret, and I'm the only one who can open the door. But if anyone's got a better idea, speak up."

People glanced at each other warily, but either the shock of being told they were going to meet in the chamber of secrets kept them silent or no one did, in fact, have a better idea. Gabriel was betting on a combination of both.

"Right," said Hermione, who was looking relieved that no one had started an argument. "I suppose the next thing would be to talk about how often we should meet, and when-"

"Make sure to leave time for Quidditch practice," said Michael hurriedly.

The Weasley twins nodded in agreement. "Angelina would kill us if we didn't show up." Fred said sagely.

"And that's not an exaggeration," Geroge added. "I think we'd better check with Puddlemer United to make sure Oliver hasn't been killed, because she might be channeling his spirit."

"Alright, enough," said Hermione good-naturedly as several people laughed. "I'm sure we can find a night that suits everyone, but this is rather important, we are learning to defend ourselves against Voldemort's Death Eaters-"

"Well said!" said a rather pompous-sounding boy sitting near Gabriel. "Personally, I think this is really important - even more important than OWLs, really!" He looked around, as if expecting cries of agreement. "I'm really at a loss to say why the Ministry has given us such useless teachers at a time like this - I mean, we didn't have Umbridge long, but her replacement isn't much better!"

Gabriel wondered over the merits of going after the defense teachers so that it would appear that the 'curse' on the position came earlier every time they replaced one.

"Obviously, they're in denial over the return of You-Know-Who, but to give us a teacher who actively prevents us from performing defensive spells-"

"It's because the Ministry thinks Dumbledore is trying to make his own army," said Luna in a calm voice.

The people sitting around her glanced over and then at their friends, as if to say _is she serious?_

"It's because he's got his own army of Heliopaths and doesn't want any competition," Luna continued.

"He hasn't," Hermione snapped.

"He does, actually."

"What are Heliopaths?" A Gryffindor Gabriel only barely recognized asked with a blank look.

"Spirits of fire," Luna told him solemnly. "Great, tall, flaming creatures that gallop across the ground and burn everything in their path."

"There's no such thing," Hermione said impatiently.

"Yes, they do!" Luna said angrily.

"And where's the proof for that?" Hermione asked, slightly haughtily, as if she imagined that the argument would end there and then.

"Okay, okay, calm down," Gabriel said, raising his hands. "And I don't know about Heliopaths, but they sound an awful lot like Ifrit."

Hermione stared at Gabriel, obviously surprised that he'd taken Luna's side. "A what?"

"Ask me later, I'm not running a magical creatures class." Gabriel put his hands back on the table. "And I thought we were discussing when to meet?"

"Right," said Michael, who looked entirely relieved that he hadn't been the one forced to stop the argument. "How about once a week? That way we probably won't get in the way of anything."

There were murmurs of agreement and nods around the circle.

"Alright then, we'll send a message out when we've got a time for the first meeting." Hermione seemed to steel herself for something, but it was so subtle that Gabriel doubted anyone other than himself had noticed it. She reached down to her bag and produced a parchment and quill, placing it on the table and sliding it into the middle.

"I think we should all write our names down, just so we know who was here," she said. "But also," Here Hermione took a deep breath. "I think we should also not go shouting about what we're doing. So - so signing is basically agreeing not to tell Professor Ackerly or anyone else about what we're doing."

Well. Gabriel had expected a lot of things, but tricking everyone into signing a magically binding contract was one of the things he hadn't expected Hermione to do.

Fred reached for the quill and immediately put his name down, and so did George, but the pompous Hufflepuff - who was sitting next to them - hesitated.

"I - well - I am a prefect," he finally said. "I mean - if this gets out-"

"Honestly, Ernie," Hermione said sharply. "Do you really think I'd lose this list?"

"Er - well, no-" Ernie shrank back slightly under Hermione's stern look. "Yes, I'll sign." And he did so. The list made its rounds until it was sitting in front of Gabriel, who signed _Harry Potter _with a flourish.

They dispersed after that, a flood of students leaving the pub and vanishing to various corners of Hogsmeade, and Ron, Hermione, Michael, and Gabriel were standing outside the Hog's Head when Hermione turned around and pressed the parchment on Gabriel again.

"Okay, you can actually sign it now."

Michael frowned. "What?"

Gabriel grinned, taking the parchment. "Let me guess - you know it's not valid unless I use my real name?" He waved the parchment in the wintry-cold air. "Magically bindign contract. Tsk tsk, Hermione. I didn't think you had the nerve."

Ron blanched behind her. "Magically binding?"

"Oh, relax, Ron," Hermione said impatiently. "Unless you want to go running off shouting about the club, nothing will happen."

"Yeah, those were the terms." Gabriel glanced down at the quill Hermione was offering. "What makes you think this signature doesn't count?"

"Well-" Hermione seemed almost reluctant to say it. "You're not really Harry Potter, are you? So it shouldn't count."

"Smart." Gabriel nodded. "Technically true. And you want to see my fancy angel signature, don't you."

Hermione blushed lightly but didn't answer. Ron, however, looked intrigued.

"Do you have one?" he asked. Gabriel rolled his eyes.

"Maybe I do, Ron. Ever occurred to you that there's more than one language in the universe? English didn't magically spring into existence at the beginning of time."

Gabriel took the quill and, with three people peering over his shoulder, signed the parchment with the triangular sigil that meant _Gabriel. _"Satisfied?"

Hermione peered at the sigil. "What language is that in?" Michael was also looking at it thoughtfully, while Ron just looked a bit confused.

"Mine," said Gabriel cheerfully, shoving the parchment back into her hands. "And if no one minds I'm going to explore."

He flew off before any of them could protest.

* * *

Hogsmeade was really boring and Gabriel spent the rest of the time allotted for visiting the village in the Forbidden forest instead because why not? It was more interesting than hanging out around a load of wizards anyway.

As soon as he got back inside, though, Luna was waiting for him.

"I was wondering about what you said about Ifrit," she said immediately. "Do you really think I've just been calling them by the wrong name?"

"Sounds similar enough," Gabriel replied, shrugging. "I don't know about the whole 'galloping' thing, but as far as spirits of fire go? Basically the same thing, from what you've said. But I doubt the Minister has his own army or whatever - their only weakness is magic, so they'd probably do their best to avoid you guys."

"Oh." Luna looked disappointed. "I'll have to let Daddy know, then. It's too bad. He was really sure about that one."

"Well, let me know if you've got any more conspiracy theories about magical creatures and I'll see what I know."

"Alright then. What about Nargles, though?" Luna pinned Gabriel with a wide-eyed, curious gaze.

"I thought they sounded a bit like Maras - they're Slavic spirits, go around causing confusion. As far as I can tell, you've just got the names wrong."

Luna hummed to herself, nodding. "That might be why we can't find any of them - we might have something else wrong. Thank you!" She dashed up the stairs to the girl's dorm, leaving Gabriel in the common room.

Well. Gabriel couldn't help but feel like he'd started something outside his control.

* * *

**Yeah, you guys get a little more Luna at the end of this chapter. I can't help but like her. There should have totally been more Luna in the books, because you can't just make a side character like that so awesome and then not include them at all!**

**Just so you know, I'm starting school this Tuesday! So way less frequent updates. I don't even know how I managed to write all this, AND do like half my homework in about four hours. **

**Read and review!**


	42. Tricking the Trickster

**...And Other Pointless Endeavors. If you're curious about this statement, I couldn't fit the entire title inside the given parameters.**

**Thank you for all the reviews! A couple of you asked about the magical contract, along the lines of 'would it still work?' The answer is, no. That's why Gabriel didn't hesitate to sign it. **

**The Goblet took effect for one reason - first, because of only names being dropped in, I'm guessing that the goblet has the ability to 'sense' a person based on their name, because otherwise it's picking based on which names it likes best. And that's stupid. So it was able to find 'Harry' [because it's still his body even if it hasn't been him in it for a while] and chose him because who better or more competent to compete?**

**Anyway. Now a contract would most definitely not work, but it doesn't really matter since Gabriel's not planning on telling anyone.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter**

* * *

Their potions substitute was an older man with a truly impressively large mustache called Horace Slughorn.

Gabriel really wasn't sure what to think of him.

On one hand, he was a much better teacher than Snape had ever been. On the other, he was the kind of teacher who picked and collected favorites and was always talking about his old students and their accomplishments.

So Gabriel's opinion was almost evenly split between 'annoying' and 'eh. Forget him, there are more important things to think about', and he usually went with the latter, because the weird potions substitute was not the most important thing on his mind.

What was on his mind was that Snape was still not cooperating.

Honestly. He'd been in there for how long, now? And Snape still adamantly refused to say whether he'd figured out the point of it all or not. Maybe he had and was in denial. Maybe he was just blind to his own faults. Whatever the case, Gabriel was seriously considering just sticking him in some sort of fatal scene and letting someone find him in some corner of the castle a few months from now.

There was only so long a trick could go on before it got boring. Gabriel was reminded of why he'd never used the idiot box on anyone except the Winchesters, who were basically the only people he'd tricked that hadn't ended up dead.

But it turned out that the decision was, eventually, taken out of his hands.

* * *

It started with little things.

So-called 'magic traps' littered over the school, obviously meant to try and take the Trickster unawares. Luckily, Gabriel was not only much smarter than they seemed to think he was, none of the traps worked.

Then, the teachers started trying harder. They started keeping eagle eyes on the classes and Gabriel couldn't eat candy _anywhere _without someone swooping down on him suspiciously.

If only for the sake of his Twix bars, Gabriel decided to throw them a bone.

If 'stumbling' into one of the traps, Trickster disguise set and looking down at the trap in surprise wasn't enough to get them to stop, _nothing_ would be.

As it turns out, stumbling into one of the traps was exactly enough.

It's only an hour or so, despite the fact that it's nearing midnight, before light starts shining in the distance and Dumbledore turns the corner, McGonagall, Flitwick, and Sprout in tow. They were all holding lit wands, and the white light flickered over the corridor and Gabriel as they came to a stop, careful not to step over the edges of their 'trap'.

Gabriel gave them a slow clap, which was about as sarcastic as a clap could be. "Well _done. _You've managed to catch yourself a Trickster."

Sprout looked surprised at the American accent, but she didn't comment on it.

"So you are the one who attacked both Professor Umbridge and Professor Snape?" Dumbledore asked. His face could have been set in stone.

Gabriel shrugged. "I might be." He admitted, grinning. "Come on. Those two? How could I resist?"

"What in Merlin's name is that supposed to mean?" McGonagall demanded. "I hardly think that-"

"Come _on," _Gabriel said, drawing out the words and speaking over McGonagall. "None of you? Really?" He whistled in fake amazement. "How deep are you in De Nile?"

"I presume you are referring to Professor Umbridge's unique teaching method," Dumbledore guessed.

"Just hers?" Gabriel gave Dumbledore a slightly condescending look. "Really. None of you see anything wrong with the other guy's classes." Mentally, Gabriel frowned over Dumbledore's wand. There was something a bit off about it - but there was no way it would be that easy. Right? I mean, who would ever guess that he had Death's wand?

The four teachers glanced at each other, as if having a silent conversation. Flitwick was the first to speak. "Do you mean how he-"

"Never _mind,"_ Gabriel said airily, interrupting the smaller teacher. "If you don't know I'm not going to explain myself to you."

"I think we deserve an explanation, since you have stolen two of our teachers," Dumbledore insisted, his tone darkening slightly.

"So, what?" Gabriel raised his eyebrows. "You're going to force me to tell you?"

"You are in our trap," pointed out Sprout.

Gabriel grinned at her. "Oh, am I?"

He vanished silently and reappeared behind them, the teachers stiffening and swinging around to see where he'd gone, light swinging around the walls crazily until they landed on him again like spotlights. Gabriel noticed that the portraits were all watching avidly, like spectators to a show.

"Let's be honest," Gabriel said, still grinning at the teacher's now slightly worried expressions. "We both know that I'm beyond what you're used to dealing with. I'm only here because I wanted a quick chat. So, sorry," Gabriel affected a regretful expression that even the four teachers would be able to tell was fake, "But I'm gonna have to cut this short."

_Snap._

* * *

He hadn't done anything to the four who came to confront him except give them a vague sense of deja vu which lasted for about twenty-four hours, and okay, maybe he'd switched out Dumbledore's candy dish. It wasn't his fault the man had abominable taste. Lemon candies. Honestly. There weren't even any other choices.

It took another week for anything interesting to happen, and that was only because Gabriel eavesdropped on the next staff meeting.

They were talking about him, of all things. Gabriel settled in to listen.

"I told you, he walked right out of the trap."

"But that's-"

"Impossible, _so you have said already. _But you were also the one who warned that it might not work-"

"It was a very small possibility, but I was sure that it would-"

"I think we should really bring someone else in."

"Like who?"

"I don't know! People more experienced than us, for sure! Doesn't the Department of Mysteries deal with things like this?"

"You're suggesting that we ask for Ministry aid?"

"I'm saying that someone there might have encountered one of these before."

"Hate to break it to you, sister, but I'm one of a kind."

Everyone in the room jumped as Gabriel spoke, whipping around to see him balanced on the windowsill.

"No need to get so excited," Gabriel said cheerfully. Several of the teachers had drawn their wands, but no one made a move to try and attack him.

Dumbledore had stood up from his place at the head of the table. "Why are you here?" He asked.

"Well, that's a loaded question. Why are any of us here? Some might say it's because God got bored and decided to create the world-"

McGonagall made an exasperated noise. "Why did you interrupt our meeting?"

Gabriel pointed at her. "Better question. What you mean is, why interrupt when I could have sat here and found out your exact plans for what to do with me. Right?"

"I must admit," Dumbledore said slowly, "I am curious as to why you announced your presence."

"Why do I do anything?" Gabriel asked rhetorically, swinging his legs onto the floor and damnit they barely touched it. He pretended he didn't care. "Honestly? I'm _bored." _Gabriel absolutely did not whine the last part. "Your Potions professor isn't nearly as interesting as I thought he'd be."

Gabriel could practically feel the atmosphere in the room sharpen - he'd landed on the right topic. Let's see where he could go with this.

"Professor Snape isn't...interesting?" Vector finally asked, when the silence had begun to drag on.

"Did I stutter?" Gabriel leaned back against the window, grinning slightly. "What, did you think I just straight up killed him? Nah. Quality entertainment. Or at least, he was."

"I don't suppose that means you'd be willing to bring him back," Sprout tried hopefully.

Gabriel gave her a _really _look. "There's a point to all these tricks, you know. I'm waiting until the dear ol' professor pulls his head out of his ass and realizes what I'm trying to get through his head."

"So he will come back eventually." said McGonagall, looking relieved.

"_Well..." _Gabriel let the word linger in his mouth. "It's been a while. He's getting boring. It's beginning to look like a lost case, honestly." And they were back to the tense atmosphere. "And who knows what could happen then." Gabriel put a hand to his chin in mock thought. "Sharks? I'm thinking sharks. Maybe sharknado. You ever see that movie? Don't. It was horrible."

He grinned at the horrified looks on their faces. "Don't be so dramatic. He'll survive." Gabriel paused. "Probably."

"You can't do that!" Gabriel turned towards the teacher who had made the outburst - unsurprisingly, it was the substitute Defense teacher.

"Actually," Gabriel grinned even wider, and Ackerly shrank back in her seat. "I can."

Absolute silence followed. None of the teachers seemed willing to draw his attention, and some of them seemed almost glad that he'd scared the shit out of the Ministry lackey.

Huh. Even the teachers didn't like her.

"If you'll excuse me," Gabriel said, hopping to the floor, "I've got places to be. Check ya later."

_Snap._

He hoped they appreciated his redecoration properly.

* * *

By the next day the papers were already blaring headlines about how the Minister had been alerted to a problem at Hogwarts and was sending a team of Aurors to deal with it.

This was going to be _hilarious. _

Apparently they were also bringing along an 'Unspeakable', which was apparently the name for the people who worked in the Department of Mysteries. Gabriel was actually interested to see what they were like, because judging from people's reactions to the name they were a pretty big deal.

Still, however good these Unspeakables were, there would only be one of them and that definitely wasn't enough to deal with Gabriel.

The dark-cloaked figured hovered in the back of most of their classes, whispering and casting suspicious looks over teachers and students alike. The Aurors seemed mostly useless and spent most of their time prowling in the background of the school, investigating every single corner they could find.

Despite the worries from Hermione and basically everyone else who had been at the Hog's Head that their club was in danger, Gabriel was having a blast messing with the Aurors.

There was the occasional surprise left in dingy corners for them to find and freak out over [okay, maybe they weren't the nicest surprises].

Things progressed in this manner, Gabriel not giving anything away or giving them any reason to suspect Harry Potter [the ability to create doubles sure came in hand from time to time], and everything came to a head only a few weeks after they had arrived.

The Aurors, having gotten frustrated with their lack of progress and the fact that the things Gabriel left for them to find had gotten more and more mocking as time went on, had resorted to talking to students and looking for even the smallest hint that someone might unknowingly have of how to find the Trickster.

One of them, a pale, older man, had bypassed talking and gone straight into 'interrogation mode'.

"Look, kid, just tell me if you've seen anything!" The Hufflepuff he was talking to looked near tears, and out of the corner of his eye Gabriel noticed both McGonagall and two of the Auror's teammates moving towards him, with furious and concerned looks respectively.

Too slow.

Gabriel wasn't sure how observant they were, so he didn't snap but instead simply skipped the physical cue and went straight for his Grace, and the shouty Auror vanished, the Hufflepuff jumping and a few scattered candy wrappers drifting to the floor in front of them.

The occupants of the hallway - an entire class's worth of Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws - seemed to freeze before everyone exploded into action.

Students hurriedly got out of the way of the other two Aurors, who were running toward where the third had vanished, one bending down to grab the wrappers off the floor. There was also one still-intact candy bar, with a long note attached which read 'Asshole Alert' in the fanciest calligraphy Gabriel had been able to muster in the few seconds he had to think of something good.

He really doubted that they'd ever think to look for the Auror in the Russian Antarctic research station.

"You sure that wasn't you?" Michael asked quietly as they were shunted to the side, more teachers arriving.

"Nah," Gabriel lied easily. "I was about to do something, though. The Trickster just beat me there."

"Honestly, I don't think the Aurors are going to help." Michael admitted. "Even Dumbledore was worried, you could tell."

Gabriel shrugged. "Well, maybe the Aurors will keep the Trickster distracted from everyone else."

That they certainly were - Gabriel had been having too much fun to even see what was going on with Snape. Speaking of which, maybe he should send the potions master some company.

Ah well. He'd just have to wait until another one of them did something worthy of retribution.

* * *

By dinner that day everyone was buzzing about the Auror, who was the only one so far to have vanished in front of witnesses. The Hufflepuff who had actually been right in front of the vanishing man was apparently a second year named Laura Madley, and she was absolutely swamped with requests to know what had really happened from anyone who wasn't there. The same was happening to anyone who had been in the hallway at the time, the rest of the school eager to know what had happened to make the Trickster act so blatantly.

The group of Aurors, now down to six, weren't at dinner, and when Gabriel actually looked that night he found them huddled together and whispering at the end of a corridor on the fifth floor.

Well then. Time to make things a little more interesting.

Gabriel left the by-now usual double in his bed, in case anyone came by to check [there was no way to tell what the staff might do at this point] and proceeded to put into action what he hoped would turn out to be a complete raging mess of chaos.

That was the whole point of a Trickster, after all, and what sort of God of Mischief would Gabriel be if he never caused anything big?

A door slammed down the hall from the group and they all whipped around, wands at the ready and peering into the darkness which the hallway was blanketed in, since it was nearly ten. The only light came from the torch on the wall nearest them, and whoever had their wand lit.

"Hello?"

"Don't greet it you idiot what if something's actually out there." An obviously senior Auror smacked the one who had spoken first on the head, and as he did so four more doors burst open and then slammed. Warily, the group of six froze, looking around for the possible cause as Gabriel grinned around a lollipop from his position standing on top one of the unlit torch brackets. And no, he was most definitely not pretending to be a ninja. Where on earth would you get that idea.

The same thing happened to the windows, as Gabriel created the illusion that they suddenly blew out, shattering and scattering glass among the group, who all quickly drew their apparently impervious cloaks over their faces.

"Where is it?"

"I don't know, Perkins, why don't you try doing your damn job and figure it out!"

Gabriel let loose the laugh he'd been holding in and the sound echoed eerily down the corridor, due to the effects he'd put in place earlier to generally make things a bit scarier than they would normally be.

"The damn thing is laughing at us!" The man in the middle seemed to swell with indignation. "You, Perkins - take these two and go see what's at the other end of the hallway." He gestured to two of the other Aurors as he spoke, and 'Perkins' hesitated before nodding and setting off, his two new lackeys following reluctantly.

Big mistake. Didn't they know that the number one rule of horror stories was to never split up?

* * *

Three hours later, there had been a lot of screaming, some truly horror-movie worth moments, an actual bad horror-movie romance moment between two of the Aurors [she slapped him and told him to grow up and concentrate on the damn job], and Gabriel was starting to get bored messing with them.

One odd thing was that Gabriel was sure there had been six of them earlier, but one of the six had vanished somewhere, managing to avoid the worst of the trick. Most likely they were the Unspeakable, because Gabriel was sure that they didn't teach 'negating trickster magic' in whatever pathetic training those Aurors got.

Looking closer in search of the mysterious sixth member provided no results.

Intrigued, Gabriel looked even closer, scrutinizing every facet of the school, but where there should have been one more person there was nothing. Interesting. He'd never encountered someone who could hide their very soul, and from an archangel no less. Gabriel pressed harder, letting his Grace blanket the nearby area to start off with, and heard a muffled noise behind him.

He turned around and saw nothing, only the shadows from the windows stretching across the entrance hall.

Frowning, Gabriel pressed harder, finding one specific spot that definitely felt like there _should _be something there, but there wasn't. These 'Unspeakables' didn't fuck around, it seemed, but Gabriel was an archangel.

The Unspeakable didn't move physically once Gabriel ripped off their cloaking device, but he could practically feel them panicking. Weren't they ever taught not to broadcast their thoughts like that? As if Gabriel had triggered a switch, the stream of thoughts and emotion from the Unspeakable practically shut off.

"Hey," he said, grinning. "Nice of you to join the party. I was wondering where Ministry lackey number six had gone off to."

The Unspeakable stiffened slightly. "You enjoy playing with us?" Her voice was totally androgynous, and if Gabriel hadn't been able to see her soul then he'd have been hard-pressed to guess her gender.

"Kind of in the job description, sweetheart." Gabriel rolled the lollipop around in his mouth. "You know, that thing you used to hide yourself - _pretty _impressive! Mind if I ask why you thought it was necessary?"

"It's a requirement when facing an unknown entity," she stated, voice steady. Her face was hidden under the hood of her robe, which covered basically everything.

"And I'm an unknown." Gabriel considered her words. "I thought they brought you because you knew what you were dealing with."

"They think I do."

"And do you?"

"The Department of Mysteries has knowledge of many obscure areas."

Gabriel grinned. "Ah. The Department of Mysteries. The name itself invites a closer look." He spun around in the wheeled chair he'd snapped up for comfort. Maybe also because he liked spinning in them, but he'd never tell anyone that. "Do tell. I'm eager to hear about it."

There was a moment's pause before she replied. "Are you stalling?"

"Mmmmmaybe I am." Gabriel spun in another circle and then stopped, heels dragging on the floor. "Look. I've had my fun here. Your colleagues are boring me. And I can't think of anything decent for you - not that I'd want to, anyway, since you seem like a generally decent person and I'd say I don't fight women but I've known too many women who could probably kick my ass."

"Where is this going?"

"Straight to the point. I like that. What I'm saying is, I can read the signs. So call this me offering...a favor, of sorts. Whatever you want."

She didn't drop her guard for a second. "A favor."

"No strings attached."

"Let me guess...in return, I look the other way while you leave?"

Gabriel shrugged, a small grin lingering on his face. "Something like that."

"I think I'll have tor refuse."

"Now, why would you go and say something like that?" Gabriel sighed. "Look. I'm perfectly willing to be on my way with no casualties, even if you did ruin my first trick. Is it so much to ask that you try not to kill me on my way out?"

The Unspeakable paused. "What if I ask that you return Professor Snape as my favor?"

"Why on earth would you ask me to bring him back? I'm offering you anything, and you go for the potions master?" Gabriel pulled a face. "You're thinking small, sweetheart."

"No, I don't believe I am." The Unspeakable took a step forward. "How about I make a deal?"

Gabriel stood, discarding the chair, which quickly vanished. "Negotiations with the Trickster? That's playing with fire."

"I think I can handle it."

Gabriel let a grin spread over his face. "Excellent." He clapped his hands together, looking at her expectantly. "What are you angling for?"

"Two things," she said. "One, you bring back Professor Snape - unharmed."

"That's only one," Gabriel said, arching one eyebrow. "In exchange for what?"

"That's for me letting you go freely. Two, you provide information on Tricksters for the Department files in case this happens again. _Truthful _information."

"And in exchange for what?"

"Me keeping my colleagues out of your way."

Gabriel snorted. "Honey, I don't think they could stop me if they tried." He took a few steps forward, noting that the Unspeakable didn't take any backwards. "And let's say you could kill me-"

"I can," she said. "Oaken stake, with the blood of a previous victim - Madam Umbridge was all too willing once we told her what it was for."

Gabriel paused, then nodded, shifting on his feet like he was trying to discreetly go backwards. "Okay then. You've done your research. And you know what you want, obviously."

"So what do you say?"

"No." Gabriel raised a hand. "To the second one only. I could keep out of the way of those muttonheads without your help, thanks very much."

"So you agree to the first term?"

Gabriel shrugged. "Why not."

_Snap._

* * *

Snape did return, but he didn't show up to take over classes again until over a week later, and even then Slughorn continued teaching everyone under sixth year. Whispers abounded as to how he'd suddenly returned, or why the group of Aurors had left early that morning before anyone saw them, or how the Trickster had been kicked out of Hogwarts.

Gabriel feigned ignorance when Michael or Hermione asked him if he knew what had happened, because he'd been in the tower and why on earth would he be messing with a Trickster, Hermione, they're just demigods and nothing really to worry about.

Occasionally, Gabriel wondered how they would react if they found out that he was the Trickster. But that particular train of thought never lasted long, because of course they wouldn't find out. The only way that would happen would be if they deduced it - say, if they met his sons, and the only way _that _would happen would be if they both miraculously morphed into two of the people Gabriel actually trusted enough to tell about the three boys.

Like that would ever happen.

* * *

**No, of course that's not foreshadowing. Why on earth would you say something so ridiculous.**

**Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa tomorrow's my last day of summer.**

**Read and review [and maybe wish me luck in high school]**


	43. Illegal Clubs and Other Incidents

**I am so. Freaking. Sorry that it took so long to post this.**

**Currently, I have not a lot of homework, so I'm going to write as much as I can and hopefully get this up before the end of the week. If not, sorry...again.**

**NOTE: THIS STORY WILL NOT BE ABANDONED! I have too many good ideas to abandon it now and I really think it would be unfair to everyone after 42 chapters and so much still unresolved. Plus, the blatant foreshadowing in the last chapter. That would be just cruel. Trust me, if I were going to abandon this story, I would have let you know by now. Just expect brief and frequent hiatuses while I get back into the habit of school and doing homework.  
**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural or Harry Potter**

* * *

It was nearing the end of October before Gabriel managed to fix a specific time for the first meeting of their little defense club - or, rather, by the time Hermione and Michael finally agreed on a date and discreetly spread the news around.

Telling people that they were supposed to head to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom to get to the Chamber probably caused a lot of double-takes and doubtful looks. Whether they believed it or not, though, all twenty-six people showed up that Wednesday and were summarily either shown to or shoved into the pipe which led to the chamber, Gabriel waiting by the sinks to close it behind them.

Waiting to close it, and also for member number twenty-seven.

"Why am I here again?" Draco eyed the pipe warily. It was like he didn't even trust Gabriel.

"I told you, our little student vigilante group." Gabriel waved him forward. "Come on, I promise it doesn't lead to a secret murder dungeon."

"That's not at all reassuring." Draco peered over the edge.

"I'm going to push you in if you don't get on with it."

"Alright!" Squeezing his eyes shut, Draco stepped over the edge and fell, landing on his stomach and sliding down headfirst with a yell.

"I could have told him that was a bad idea," muttered Gabriel, stepping onto the short ledge he'd created right in front of the entrance. "§Close.§"

The sink ground back into place as Gabriel slid down next to a disoriented Draco, easily standing and glancing around at everyone already down there.

"What the hell is he doing here?" asked Ron in outrage, pointing a finger at Draco as he got back to his feet.

"Oh, great, you."

"Shh." Gabriel put a finger to Draco's lips. "No fighting or you'll both leave."

"But-" Ron began.

"_Shh." _Ron shut up as Gabriel strode forwards so that he was standing in front of the crowd. "Okay, judging by the fact that you're all here, I'll assume you're all okay with having class down here."

"This is crazy," somebody muttered. "How did you even find this place?"

"A lot of luck," Gabriel answered, spinning around to face them, "And coincidentally, Moaning Myrtle - who you may know as the ghost who occasionally floods the bathroom above us - was all too willing to volunteer the location."

"How did _she _know?" asked a confused-looking Ravenclaw.

"Well I didn't ask, go find her yourself." Gabriel came to a halt from his meandering path in front of the group of students. "So. We all know why we're here. Why not get started?"

"Shouldn't we elect a leader first?" Hermione said, coming up next to Gabriel.

"Harry's leader," said a Ravenclaw girl who Gabriel faintly knew as being in his year. She was staring at Hermione like Hermione had just announced a desire to marry Ms. Norris.

"Well, yes," Hermione cleared her throat. "But I thought we should take a vote on it, to make it more official."

"More official?" Gabriel raised his eyebrows. "Hermione, we're meeting in a secret dungeon, basically, running an illegal club and learning things the government doesn't want us to know. I think official is the last thing we're going for, here."

Michael snorted and then immediately tried to pretend it wasn't him as Hermione shot him a fierce glare.

"I think we should have a name, at least." Ginny spoke up, and Gabriel doubted anyone else could see the current of nervousness running through her - there was a reason they hadn't gone on to the main chamber.

"How about, 'The Ministry of Magic are Morons group?" Suggested a Gryffindor, the boy next to him rolling his eyes.

"Nah," scoffed someone else. "How about the Anti-Ackerly League?"

"That's stupid."

"What about Dumbledore's Army?"

Most people quieted down at that suggestion. Gabriel inwardly wrinkled his nose. Naming it after the headmaster? Really?

"I like it."

"Yeah, why not?"

_Really?_

"Alright, then, Army it is." Gabriel clapped his hands together. "Anyway, we might as well start off since curfew's at nine and there's plenty to do. We'll start off with Expelliarmus-"

Zacharias snorted. "Disarming? Really?"

"_Expelliarmus!" _Zacharias's wand was in Gabriel's hand in the blink of an eye, leaving the Hufflepuff staring at his empty hand.

"Alright, then," said Gabriel, a wand in each hand. "Attack me."

"What?"

"Go on. Attack me."

"You've got my wand," Zacharias protested.

Gabriel pointed the unfamiliar wand at him. "_Exactly." _Several people laughed as they realized how Gabriel had tricked him, and Zacharias steamed, nearly dropping his wand as Gabriel tossed it back. "Going off of that," Gabriel said loudly, the stone room naturally enhancing his voice and echoing it slightly, "Disarming is fairly important. Why? Because no wizard gives a shit about learning how to defend themselves using nonmagical methods. Take their wands away, they'll be sitting ducks." He gestured at the silent group of students. "So will you, but we'll be covering more than just spells."

There were several groans. Gabriel scowled at them.

"Did no one see what just happened?" He asked loudly. "I Disarmed Zacharias and he was completely useless. What happens if a group of Death Eaters manages to get your wand? Or breaks it?"

Several people winced at the idea of breaking their wand. Still, they remained silent.

"I can guarantee," Gabriel said, "That whatever spells you learn here, the Death Eaters will know too. They all went to Hogwarts. And I know some of you are only here because you want to pass exams or whatever, but there's a war coming."

They were all listening to him with rapt attention, and none of them looked at all skeptical. "The people you'll be fighting aren't going to hesitate to murder, or dismember, or do anything that might cause you pain or harm. Most of them are vicious. Some of them are quite probably insane. And all of them are older and better trained than you." Gabriel allowed himself a broad grin. "I say we man up and give them a nasty surprise, what about you?"

* * *

Gabriel honestly wondered if he really wanted to devote this much time to being a teacher.

He was a messenger. He was _the_ Messenger. He just passed on information, and it wasn't his job to make sure people understood it. So occasionally Gabriel wondered why he was still leading Dumbledore's Army when half of the students struggled with spells below their year.

Of course, him easily being frustrated was why he had Hermione and Michael to help.

Neither of them seemed bothered by the fact that half the time Gabriel left them to figure things out - they seemed to realized that he wasn't that good at teaching and left him to walk around and observe. Some of the members occasionally looked like they were about to ask questions, or wonder aloud why Gabriel didn't do more, but they were always conveniently distracted right before they could.

Shortly after the second meeting - they decided the date of the next one at the end of each meeting, keeping it random and scattered as well as allowing time for other clubs and preoccupations - Hermione came up with a way to communicate any last-minute changes in the date, in the form of fake Galleons.

"See, normally the numbers on the side are just the serial numbers," she explained as Gabriel examined one, "But on these they reflect the date and time of the meeting. Here, this one is yours, and if you change it all the other ones will vibrate and change as well, I've put a Protean charm on them-"

"A what?" One of the Ravenclaws was staring at Hermione in shock as the coins were distributed among the members [even Draco, who people seemed to be slightly warming up to.

"A Protean charm," Hermione repeated.

"You can do a Protean charm?" Michael's eyebrows were somewhere in the vicinity of nir hairline.

"Well- yes."

"But -" The first Ravenclaw looked a bit lost. "That's NEWT level."

Hermione looked embarrassed. "Er - I suppose it is."

"Pretty interesting spell," Gabrile put in, tucking his into his pocket. "Convenient, anyway. Thanks."

"You're welcome." Still blushing slightly, Hermione continued handing them out. "I suppose the only danger is that people will accidentally spend them-"

"I doubt it," Ron said, slightly mournfully. "I haven't got any real Galleons to confuse it with."

* * *

The week leading up to the first Quidditch match dawned as the first one in a year, due to the Tournament being cancelled last year.

It also dawned on the highest-running tensions since...well, since the Trickster had worked his magic. Housr rivalry was at its strongest, and several players ended up in the hospital wings due to 'stray' hexes or all-out fights springing up in the corridor. Absolutely nothing was off-limits.

It was fabulous.

Gabriel might not have been in Gryffindor or Slytherin, but he was still at Hogwarts and maybe a little bit of the Trickster was still there because it was amazing to see how just _nudging _one person in the right direction could lead to a corridor full of toads and two seventh-years being dragged off to the hospital wing, a teacher angrily assigning detentions.

Maybe Michael had gotten a little suspicious, but in any case Gabriel broke off the mild chaos before the game started - at least, any of it he was responsible for. It wasn't his fault the entire school was Quidditch-crazed.

Luna showed up at the Ravenclaw table the morning of the match in a lion's hat which roared rather realistically and copied her expression. It also gave the impression that it was eating her head, but Gabriel only raised his eyebrows in a silent question as she sat down across from him.

"Well, Ravenclaw's not playing, so I thought it would be a good idea to show support for Gryffindor," Luna said serenely. "I was going to have it chewing up a snake as well, to represent Slytherin, but I ran out of time."

It was rather impressive, considering that it was a magical hat made by a fifteen-year-old girl, but Gabriel was interrupted before he could say so as Michael say down next to him, practically vibrating with excitement.

"Michael, you're going to wear a hole in the bench if you keep doing that."

"Come on, tell me you're not a little bit excited!"

"I'm not a little bit excited," Gabriel replied, completely deadpan. Luna giggled, and Michael glanced over at her, doing a double take at the hat.

"Where'd you get that?"

"I made it," Luna answered happily. "It turned out rather well, don't you think?"

"Yeah," said Michael after a moment. "You made that yourself? Cool."

Luna beamed at him.

* * *

Gabriel had to threaten Michael with mild dismemberment [not that he would have carried through with it] before Michael stopped trying to drag him down to the pitch. Of course, not trying to physically move Gabriel and accepting that he didn't want to go were two different things.

He didn't stop trying to persuade Gabriel until they all had to leave for the game and Gabriel was left in a practically deserted castle.

Gabriel simply rolled his eyes at the stupidity of some of their entertainment and went off to find something interesting to do.

* * *

Interesting, however, seemed to temporarily be in short supply, and when Michael came back with the rest of the Ravenclaws Gabriel was sprawled out on one of the sofas in the common room.

"Gryffindor won!" He said happily.

"Congratulations," Gabriel replied dryly. "I don't care."

Michael seemed unbothered by Gabriel's attitude as he sat down in a nearby chair. "Come on, let me be excited! We haven't had a Quidditch game in ages."

"I know. That was the best part of last year - well, second to not having to take exams."

Michael frowned. "You're such a killjoy."

"I try."

"You know what happened?" Michael leaned forward as if imparting a great piece of wisdom. "You know Ron - well, apparently, he made Gryffindor keeper - that's like the goalie-"

"I know. Continue."

"Well, anyway, the Slytherins started singing this really rude song - they kept going for the entire game, actually, to try and unbalance Ron - it was all about him. And his family in general." Michael shook his head. "Just mean, really, and they confronted a bunch of the Weasleys after the game and provoked them into a fight - Ackerly was all over that, of course, I don't know what she's going to do to them - of course she favors the Slytherins. Almost makes me wish the Trickster hadn't left."

Gabriel briefly contemplated granting Michael's wish, then decided against it. That would just lead to a load of unnecessary trouble.

"Hey!" Michael had leaned over Gabriel. "Stop drifting off, would you?"

"I might not if you didn't tell such boring stories."

"Hey!"

* * *

The weeks leading up to Christmas break were just a countdown for Gabriel, who had gotten used to spending every day at home over the summer and was eager to be getting back to his sons. Hagrid had shown up again the day after the Quidditch game, and the looks traded across the hall with Hermione told Gabriel that neither her nor Michael would be willing to accept an easy answer as to why he'd shown up two months late for school.

Gabriel, however, didn't take Hagrid's class and really had no reason to be concerned with the man, except for the fact that he kept showing up with fresh bruises and cuts which were not nearly as discreet as he seemed to think they were.

The school year proceeded without any further incident, however, until a few days before Christmas break.

Gabriel sat up in bed from where he was feigning sleep and playing mind games when someone knocked on the door. It swung open to reveal a bewildered-looking Prefect.

"I don't know why, Harry," he said to Gabriel, "But there's a painting outside demanding that you come up to Dumbledore's office."

Several of his dormmates, who had also been woken up, glanced at Gabriel through sleep-muddled eyes in obvious confusion. Frowning thoughtfully, Gabriel pulled on a dressing gown. "In one of the paintings outside, you mean?"

"Yes - I'd hurry if I were you. It seems rather urgent."

Gabriel nodded curtly as he ducked past the Prefect, skipping the stairs entirely as soon as he was out of sight and appearing outside the blue door into the common room. A lone painting hung on the wall, and its usual occupant had been crowded to the side by witch with grey ringlets.

"Oh good," she said. "You'd better hurry. Someone might be dying."

Well.

This was a twist.

"Dumbledore's office, right?" Gabriel tied the sash on his dressing gown.

"Yes - quickly, follow me-"

"No need."

Gabriel vanished in a flutter of wings and took about three seconds to locate Dumbledore, noting that all of the Weasleys still at Hogwarts [as well as McGonagall] were in the office as well before landing in a flutter of wings and making them all jump.

"That painting's rather excitable," he said by way of greeting. "Who's dying?"

Ron flinched, and the twins looked rather green. Dumbledore just looked solemn. "Arthur Weasley has been attacked," he said. "I thought I might ask for your help."

Gabriel raised his eyebrows. "Well, I'm going to need a few more details than _that._"

"Dilys alerted me that something had attacked him while on guard duty," Dumbledore said, gesturing to a currently empty portrait. "I sent her to fetch you, as well as a few others to alert anyone they could find - I implore you, if you can get there first, take him to St Mungo's - it will avoid a lot of awkward questions."

"Okay, how about details like 'where is he' and 'where's St Mungo's'?" Gabriel suggested dryly.

"Is now really the best time to be making jokes-" Dumbledore put up a hand to stall McGonagall's concerns.

"St Mungo's is in London, several streets south from the Leaky Cauldron and on Charing Cross Road," he said calmly. "As for where he is-" Dumbledore sounded almost reluctant.

"Let me guess," Gabriel said. "It's a secret and you don't want them-" He gestured to the Weasleys, "-To know because it will ruin your delicate little plans to keep them safe."

Dumbledore looked severely down at him. He probably thought he looked intimidating. Well, to anyone else, he probably did.

"Look," Gabriel huffed after a moment. "You can either tell me or not. I could just go in and get it if you think about it-"

McGonagall put her hand to her mouth and looked about as scandalized as a person could get. Ron looked torn between horror and worry - his brothers and Ginny were in a similar state.

"Legilimens?" Dumbledore asked in surprise.

"I have no idea what you just said but I'm going to guess it's related to mind-reading," Gabriel said, rolling his eyes. "Your decision, Dumbledore." Gabriel waved a finger back and forth. "Tick, tock. How long has Mr Weasley been there, exactly?"

Fred made and aborted movement, as though he were about to rush at Gabriel. Dumbledore started at Gabriel as though he were attempting to x ray him with only his eyes. Gabriel was going to inquire as to the point of the little staring contest when a location nudged at his mind.

"Got it," he said, snapping. "Back in a moment." And he vanished again, taking off and landing in London seconds later, underground and deep in the bowels of the Ministry of Magic.

So this was the Department of Mysteries.

Which meant that the man dripping blood all over the floor had to be Mr. Weasley - and even if Gabriel had come there by accident, he would have known right away by the shock of ginger hair.

There was something else on the floor.

Gabriel trapped the snake under one foot as it was about to strike one more time, the huge python hissing and writhing as it tried to escape from under Gabriel's foot. Gabriel absentmindedly crushed it farther as he leaned forward to examine Mr. Weasley, and his senses let him whirl around and catch the scrap of grey before it escaped completely.

On the floor, the snake slumped, completely still. Gabriel ignored it, staring at the grey thing caged by his fingers.

"Well, well." he said amiably. "Voldemort. We meet again. Honestly, you're even more pathetic than the last time."

The scrap pulsed with something akin to anger and it struggled to escape, hissing and compressing back when white flashed and sparked as it brushed against Gabriel's fingers.

It died pathetically easily, dissipating in a slightly brighter flash. Gabriel dusted his hands off and leaned over Mr. Weasley again.

"Nasty wound," he muttered to no one in particular. He brought one hand up and let it hover over Mr. Weasley's torso before jerking it back sharply.

Mr. Weasley jerked as well, still unconscious but limbs jerking as Gabriel drew out the slightly greenish poison, which hung suspended in the air before Gabriel vanished it in a snap.

The redheaded man slumped against the wall again and Gabriel almost tried to pick him up before straightening.

"Right," he reminded himself. "Might start the blood flow again." Gabriel shook his head, glancing down at Mr. Weasley and putting his hands on his hips. "Humans are so damn fragile. It's a wonder they survived this long."

Letting out a breath, Gabriel brushed two fingers over Mr. Weasley's forehead. The wound didn't heal completely, but it did stop bleeding and shrink slightly.

Dumbledore had said he'd already alerted other people, and it would be suspicious if they arrived to find Mr. Weasley completely fine.

Even so, Gabriel didn't restrain himself that much. Mr. Weasley wasn't a bad person, after all, and Trickster though he may be that didn't mean he was incapable of being nice.

Something moved in the hallway behind him and Gabriel's head snapped around to listen. Faint voices were coming closer, panicked-sounding and making no effort to be quiet.

That was his cue to go.

Gabriel reappeared in an office that was now empty save for Dumbledore, who whirled around at the noise. "Is he alright?" Dumbledore asked anxiously.

"He'll be fine," said Gabriel, waving a hand dismissively. "I'll assume you've sent the Weasleys off to bed?"

"No," Dumbledore replied. "Back to Grimmauld place, actually, to wait for news."

Gabriel raised an eyebrow. "Well then. If they get to leave early, I suppose it doesn't matter if I head home myself."

"You plan to leave for Christmas break?" Dumbledore asked in poorly disguised interest.

"I'm an angel. That doesn't mean no social life." Gabriel plucked a piece of paper out of midair. "Here. Forwarding address, in case something else gets mucked up." Gabriel grinned, handed over the paper, and flew off again.

First stop, St Mungoes. Time to finish what he's started with Umbridge.

* * *

**I tried to give you guys an extra long one to make up for how long this took to post - again, sorry! Hope you enjoy!**

**Read and review, please!**


	44. Kids and Guests, Take Two

**Okay, here's to hoping I can get this chapter up quicker than the last one. If I can't, many apologies to you guys!  
**

**NOTE: In case none of you noticed - I posted a one-shot under 'The Drawer of Ideas and Impossible Things' based on the idea of, 'what if Harry hadn't died in the Accidental Vessel?'. If you're interested, check it out and leave me a review!**

**To the two guest reviewers - who I suspect are the same person - and 'Reality Check', please don't bother to leave a review unless your criticism is actually constructive. Also, 'tranny' is a _hugely_ offensive word to use and I would think that you should probably take a long look at your life decisions if you're using it that casually.  
**

**In addition, I don't care what you think of Michael being gender neutral. He's gender neutral. I don't understand why people have such a problem with that. **

**Finally, no, I do not fantasize about Snape being better than he really is. He's an asshole. He's also an asshole who likes to feel absolved of any blame. Hence the asphodel and wormwood bit in the earliest chapters.  
**

**That's all. Please refrain from leaving nasty comments in the future.**

**Okay, long author's note, I know, now let's get on with the story!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter**

* * *

St Mungo's turned out to be a relatively well-hidden wizard hospital, but it was only too easy for Gabriel to find his way past the enchanted storefront and into the lobby of the hospital. It wasn't very crowded, late at night as it was, and Gabriel was easily able to slide up to the front desk, under the guise of a brown-haired man.

A young witch was sitting there, going over a long list of parchment. "Can I help you?" She sounded vaguely irritated.

"You can." Gabriel grinned impishly. "I'm looking for a..." He pretended to check a notebook which he'd snapped up prior to entering the hospital. "Umbridge?"

The witch frowned. "Madam Umbridge was checked out weeks ago."

"Darn." Gabriel grinned at her. He hadn't really expected Umbridge to still be there. "Any chance you could tell me where she might be?"

The witch looked up at him with narrowed eyes. "Is there a reason you're looking for her?"

Gabriel held his hands up. "Professional interest," he replied easily, withdrawing a fake ID and handing it over with a flourish. "That, and I've been assigned to get an interview with her by my boss, and I like keeping my job."

"I didn't know the news had spread to America," the witch remarked, her attitude relaxing and opening as the tension bled out of her posture.

"She keeps an eye out for things like this," Gabriel 'explained'. "Runs a magical creature magazine, see, and Tricksters are pretty rare - at least, from what I've heard. Never knew about 'em before this assignment."

"Well, I'm sure Madam Umbridge will be all too willing to share," said the witch, rolling her eyes and sweeping the chair over to where a row of filing cabinets stood. "Honestly, I've never heard a patient _talk _so much - once she was up to it, of course, very nasty business." She glanced over her shoulder to where Gabriel was still leaning against the counter. "Sure you want to get involved?"

"I work for a magical creatures magazine," Gabriel repeated by way of answer. "Trust me, I've been up against some crazy stuff. Besides, isn't this Trickster thing supposed to be gone now?"

"Well, I haven't heard any recent news, so I assume it's been dealt with. Ah, here it is." The witch pulled out a slim file. "I think...yes, here, she was discharged back in October. Most likely by now she'll be back at the Ministry, but in case she isn't you could try and see if they'll release her address."

She swung back over to the main counter, the chair sliding smoothly despite its lack of wheels. "D'you know how to get into the Ministry?"

"Honestly? No clue," Gabriel laughed. "Never really had cause to come across the pond before - plenty to see and do in America, it being about ten times the size of this country."

The witch laughed with him. "I suppose I can't fault you for that - and the weather's not much good either." She pulled over a blank piece of parchment and plucked a quill from an inkpot which housed several, scribbling away in neat, curly handwriting. "The visitor's entrance is near here, actually, and you'll have to go that way because only employees know the Floo password."

"Thanks." Gabriel accepted the scrap she handed over. "I can't say much for the weather either - but I come from up north myself, so instead of rain we get a shitload of snow every year."

"Bad luck," the witch sympathized. "Still, at least snow you can shovel out of the way."

Gabriel shrugged, tucking the parchment into his front pocket. "Maybe. Thanks again for the directions." He turned to leave, only to be stopped by a shouted "Hey!"

The witch was holding out a blue card. "You forgot your ID," she said.

Gabriel made a show of reaching for his pocket. "Well," he said, taking it back, "Good thing you caught that!"

"You're welcome. Good luck with your interview."

"I think I'll need it, from what I've heard of the Ministry."

* * *

It wasn't that much harder to get into the Ministry.

"Not only is it ridiculous," Gabriel muttered, checking the directions again and glancing at the phone booth, "But it's not even decently protected."

No one inside the Ministry himself gave him a second glance, and in the plain robes Gabriel had disguised himself in he was practically camouflaged against the background of tired government workers. There was a large, ostentatious fountain in the center of the room the phone box deposited him into which Gabriel gave a single condescending glance because really? It was like wizards were trying to broadcast the fact that they were outrageously bigoted.

Umbridge was easy enough to find once he was in the building, however little contact he wanted with her soul, and flying into her office when she briefly stepped out was even easier.

"What - how did you get in here?"

"I'm sorry, but there wasn't anyone here and I thought I'd just wait and see if you came back."

"Oh - I see." Umbridge eyed him warily - Gabriel could sense glamour magic hiding almost everything that wasn't covered by her clothes. "Who are you, again?"

"I'm with an American journal on magical creatures," Gabriel repeated his earlier lie, standing up fluidly. "Got the news about the Trickster-" Umbridge flinched violently at the mention, but Gabriel continued on. "-And I got ordered over here to find out what happened."

"I see." Umbridge looked torn between reluctance and eagerness to tell her side of the story to someone who would actually listen. "Well, sit down, why don't you. Tea?"

"No thanks." Gabriel closed the door for her as Umbridge sat down, a broad grin spreading across his face. He'd always disliked people who managed to escape his traps.

* * *

"You had something to do with that, didn't you?"

"I have absolutely no idea what you mean." Gabriel let the newspaper fold over on itself, covering the moving picture and the blaring headline of 'Undersecretary Found Dead in Office!'.

"Okay," said Vali from his position precariously leaning backwards on one of the kitchen chairs, "First off, this is the first time I've ever seen you reading one of the wizard newspapers. Second, you were weirdly happy about something when you came back last night, and I _know _what Loki's the god of."

Gabriel nodded as he folded up the paper. "Sound reasoning. Absolutely no proof, though, and I wasn't reading that article anyway."

"Exactly," Vali said in a triumphant tone. "Why not read the article unless you were trying to make a point? It was pretty obvious, and usually a death catches attention."

Gabriel pointed a fork at Vali. "Better. That was good. I knew I passed down something other than my good looks."

Vali frowned. "Hang on, you did that on purpose, didn't you?"

"Why bother getting the paper if I already know what happened?" Gabriel tossed it onto the table facedown. "Just curious to see if you'd notice."

"Notice what?" Narvi strolled in, tipping his brother's chair forward so that all four legs hit the floor. Vali sent him a dirty look, but Narvi's attention had already drifted to the newspaper. He glanced at the headline, then at Gabriel. "Why'd you do something like that?"

Vali gestured at Gabriel with a sweeping hand motion. "See! Anyone could tell it was you."

"I never said it wasn't."

"What'd she do?" Narvi glanced back down at the paper. "Actually, scratch that, how did they get this picture to move?"

"No idea." Gabriel shrugged. "I think it's some sort of potion, but I couldn't say for sure. Knock yourself out with the paper, though, I don't think anyone else is going to read it."

Narvi wasted no time in flipping open to the main article and sitting down as Vali tilted back onto two chair legs and Gabriel pondered the benefits of whipping up some hot chocolate when the boys could wake up at any moment, walk in, and demand some of their own.

His thoughts were interrupted when Narvi let out a long whistle. "Wow. Pulled out all the stops, huh?"

"Hardly," Gabriel scoffed. "But the original trick was back in October and she should have died then, so I was a little frustrated."

"What did she _do?" _Narvi was reading the article with mild fascination. Vali was leaning over in an attempt to see what the article said.

"Her detentions crossed the line from punishment to actual torture," Gabriel replied, making the twins look at him in shock, "And she had the unfortunate problem of handing them out to someone I liked."

"Torture?" Vali repeated. "How'd that get past the other teachers?"

"She used a quill which used the user's ink as blood," Gabriel answered, "And then carved it on their hand. She was the Minister's flunky or whatever, so I guess no one ever searched her office and students didn't say anything because they knew she'd get off."

Narvi glanced back down at the article. "Actually, now this seems kind of tame."

"Well, like I said, this was only because she didn't die the first time around." Gabriel gave in and made himself some hot chocolate with a snap.

"Do I want to know what you did the first time around?"

"Probably not."

* * *

There was someone at the gate.

Which was weird, because Sigyn never showed up when Gabriel was there, everyone else was either inside or in the yard with Gabriel, and he hadn't invited anyone over.

The momentary lapse in attention gained Gabriel a snowball in the face, sending Slepnir and Jormungand [who had thrown it] into a fit of giggles.

"|Good aim,|" Gabriel called, wiping snow off his face. Fenris threw one back which missed, in part because Slepnir moved and partly because the snowball fell a couple feet short. "|Give me one second, guys, the General needs to take a strategic retreat.|"

The three boys continued to eagerly toss snowballs at each other as Gabriel walked towards the fence, seeing with surprise a swarm of redheads. How had the Weasleys ended up at his gate?

Oh, right. He'd given Dumbledore his address. Why had he thought that was a good idea again?

"Something the matter?" Gabriel asked, flicking aside the wards which kept anyone on the lawn invisible to those outside the gate and causing several of the Weasleys to jump at his sudden appearance. He noticed that Mrs. Weasley bore a large basket, which must have been magically lightened, and that Hermione and Michael had come as well.

"Oh good," she said briskly. "I wasn't sure we'd gotten the right address. No, nothing's wrong."

"So your visit is for..." Gabriel trailed off, leaning against the gate as he waited for an answer.

"We wanted to say thanks," Ginny said. "You know, for helping our dad." The twins nodded seriously, which was just weird. Gabriel hadn't ever seen them _not _making a joke.

"Oh." Well, that explained the basket. Mrs. Weasley had probably made about three hundred pies and stuffed them all in there. "No thanks necessary, really-"

"Nonsense!" Mrs. Weasley cut Gabriel off as she shoved the basket into his hands. "You saved his life, and we already owed you once because of Ginny-"

"Not-"

"And," Mrs. Weasley powered over Gabriel's objection, "It's because I wanted you to have something for the holidays, since I-" She abruptly stopped talking and Gabriel saw her eyes flick downwards in surprise as a hand fastened itself on his sleeve.

Shit.

"|Aren't you going to keep playing?|" Fenris demanded, not sparing a glance towards the Weasleys who were all looking at him in various states of surprise and confusion.

"|Sure I am. I told you, the General needs a break,|" Gabriel replied, setting the basket on the ground and shifting as he turned towards Fenris so that he was slightly in between him and the Weasleys. "|You can keep playing on your own, you know.|"

"|But Slepnir cheats.|"

Gabriel raised an eyebrow. "|Does he? Then cheat back.|"

"Who's that?" Fred asked, seemingly getting over his stupefication. Gabriel turned back to the Weasleys with a curious Fenris still attached to his arm.

"|Who're they?|" Fenris questioned.

"|One at a time,|" Gabriel said, putting a hand on Fenris's head. "Why do you ask?"

Mrs. Weasley seemed rather taken aback, but it was Michael who spoke. "Since when do you have kids?"

Fenris - who still looked oddly similar to Gabriel's current vessel, barring his slightly darker skin, was just as confused [if for a different reason]. He tugged sharply on Gabriel's sleeve again. "_Fa-ðiiiiiiiiiiiiir," _he whined.

"|Okay, you know what?|" Gabriel whirled around and picked Fenris up in one smooth move, making him shriek and finishing the turn so that he ended up looking at the Weasleys again, perfectly calm with a toddler [of sorts] in a thick winter jacket on his hip.

"You might as well come in," he said reluctantly.

* * *

**Okay, originally this chapter was a lot longer, but I figure by now your guys are more eager for quality over quantity and I was having a ron of trouble finding a good ending place so I need some time to work on the last scene a bit longer. Thanks for your endless patience with my updates!  
**

**Please read and [politely] review!**


	45. Magic and Night Terrors

**I know I left you guys off on a bit of a cliffhanger for the last chapter, so I really do promise that I'll try to get this one up quickly. **

**For some reason, I think Mrs. Weasley and Gabriel would clash over his kids - since she's obviously a much stricter parent than he would ever be. I imagine if Fred and George had done anything like the sand sofa incident, there would have been a lot of yelling.**

**I am also in the process of creating official art for the story. Yes, I said official art. AKA, you get to find out what everyone is supposed to look like. Family only, though - Gabriel and everyone else. I even managed to squeeze Sigyn in. I know we haven't seen a lot of her, but she'll start showing up more often later! In any case, I'll let you know when I finish the art, and you'll be able to check my profile for a link to it once I finish and put it up online.**

**There is also a finished piece already, of Gabriel, Michael, and Hermione, which I'll link to on my profile as well.**

**[Personal aside: review if you were emotionally unprepared for season 10]**

**Anyway. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter**

* * *

There was no chance for the Weasleys and company to ask the questions they were obviously dying to in the hallway, what with three [technically] preteen pagan boys running around and shucking off their winter gear. This didn't prevent any of them from trying, though, resulting in several near collisions and Gabriel having to quickly make himself busy helping Fenris get his boots off or stuffing coats into the nearest closet to keep them off the floor where they were inevitably dropped, no matter how many times he reminded the boys.

Things only calmed down when the group all settled in the kitchen, Gabriel moving around the counters in the familiar routine of making hot chocolate - even though he could have snapped some up in an instant, it was a routine they were all familiar with, and even Gabriel had to admit that when he took the time to make it, it did taste a little better.

He was also keeping half his attention on the people sitting at the table behind him, since even though he did [sort of] trust the Weasleys it was really the first time the boys had properly met anyone outside their own family since they'd gotten back.

"So, er," It was Michael who finally broke the silence. "You had kids?" Ne couldn't stop nemself from sounding more than just faintly incredulous.

"No need to sound so surprised." Gabriel said while digging in the cabinet for mugs. He may not have been eager to share the news of his kids' existence, but there was no point stonewalling the Weasleys now that they did know.

"Really?" Hermione didn't sound any less surprised. "I mean - they do look sort of like you-"

"You mean they look similar to Harry Potter," Gabriel corrected her. "Believe me, I looked nothing like this when they were born."

Mrs. Weasley looked like she didn't know what to make of it, but she spoke up regardless. "Three boys," she said, scooting the basket over on the table so that it was more off to the side. "That must be difficult, especially with you at Hogwarts for most of the year." A very obvious fish for information.

"Not really," Gabriel shrugged, taking a drink from his own mug. "I mean, it sucks that I'm not here most of the time, but they're not fending for themselves or anything."

"So who takes care of them, one of your brothers?"

Gabriel tried not to laugh. He really did.

"What's so funny?" Michael looked almost offended that Gabriel had reacted so badly to nir question. "All I asked was-"

"I know-" Gabriel managed to get the words out through his laughter, doubling over and holding up a finger. "Give me a sec-" The idea of someone like Balthazar or even Castiel taking care of three half-pagans on their own was just too funny to keep bottled up.

"Nice to know you've got so much faith in me, brother," Came an irritated voice from the door which made everyone swing around on their seats.

Balthazar was leaning against the doorframe, and judging by Mrs. Weasley's scandalized expression none of them had expected someone who was wearing a shirt with a neckline down nearly to their belly button.

"Oh come on," Gabriel replied, ignoring the various [and most either incredulous or red-faced] reactions to Balthazar. "We both know you'd be shit at raising kids."

"Only because I've got more important things to do." Balthazar straightened, one hand remaining on the doorframe. "Speaking of more important things, where did you put it all?"

"I have no idea what you mean," Gabriel said innocently, slurping out of his mug again. Balthazar's eyes narrowed.

"Yes, you do."

"Your stash was gone ages ago, if that's what you mean."

Balthazar stared at him in outrage. "Again? Are you ever going to stop getting rid of it?"

"Are you ever going to stop keeping liquor hidden away?" Gabriel shot back. "Really, Balthazar, how many times do I have to remind you?"

"Technically everyone in this house is legal - except your friends, I suppose." Balthazar eyed the Weasleys distastefully. "How long are they staying?"

Gabriel shrugged. "They just sort of showed up, honestly. And where did you spring from?"

"I was in the living room."

"Huh. I must have missed you yesterday."

"You're imagining that I spend weeks at a time not moving?"

"You're saying that you don't?"

The Weasleys had been watching the conversation with a mix of interest and bemusement. A sharp tug at his sleeve derailed Gabriel's conversation, and he looked down to see Fenris holding out an empty mug. "|It's gone.|"

"|Yeah, that happens when you don't have an unlimited supply.|"

"|I want more.|"

"|If you have more now, then there will be less later.|"

Jormungand frowned at that. "|No there won't, you'll just make more.|"

"|That doesn't mean you can have as much as you want.|"

"|I'm out, too,|" Slepnir helpfully supplied, nudging over his own empty cup.

"|Everyone gets more?|" Fenris looked up hopefully.

Gabriel surveyed the three expectant faces. "|Tell you what,|" he decided, "|Rock-paper-scissors. Winner gets what's left of mine.|"

Jormungand immediately turned to face Slepnir. "|Ready?|"

"|Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!|"

"|Noooo,|"

"Ha!" Slepnir smacked his fist lightly on top of Jormungand's 'scissors'. Gabriel glanced over at a snort from the doorway and saw that Balthazar had left.

"|My turn!|" Fenris wiggled onto Jormungand's lap to reach Slepnir. "|Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!|"

They both spread their hands wide.

Fenris looked at the matching 'paper's, then back at Gabriel. "|What now?|"

"|It's a tie, so you all get some.|" Gabriel had already distributed his remaining no-longer-quite-as-hot chocolate between the other three mugs while they were busy, and Fenris nearly fell off the chair getting to his.

"|Whoa, careful!|" Gabriel hoisted Fenris onto his lap, dragging his cup over. "|I have never seen someone get that excited over hot chocolate.|"

"|It's not really that hot anymore.|" Slepnir downed his share anyway, glancing over at the Weasleys in curiosity as he put it down. "|And you never told us who they were.|"

"|I didn't? They're friends from my school.|" Gabriel glanced at Mrs. Weasley. "|Well, most of them.|"

"I'm feeling a bit left out of this conversation," Michael commented.

"I could cast a translation spell if you like," Gabriel offered.

"No, thanks. If you did it I'd probably end up with pink hair."

"What's wrong with pink? I think it looks fine on you."

Michael's hands leaped to his hair. "You didn't-" He stopped when Fred and George startled giggling. Even Hermione was failing to conceal a small grin.

"Nice one," Fred laughed.

"You barely had to do anything," George snorted.

"I try." Gabriel didn't even try not to sound smug.

"I hate you all," Michael mumbled.

"Don't be like that, Michael," Gabriel was still grinning as he flicked the dark-haired boy lightly. "Lighten up!"

"|That's...a phrase, right?|" Slepnir tried tentatively.

"|A figure of speech. Good try.|" Gabriel ruffled Slepnir's hair, ignoring the noise of complaint it brought. "|You're getting good, though. Did you understand them?|"

"|No, he-|"

"|They. I'll explain later. Michael is complicated.|"

"|They talk too fast.|"

"What's he saying?" Hermione had leaned forward in interest.

"He says you talk too fast for him to understand." Gabriel answered. "Like I said, we're still working on English."

"|I wanna play a game.|" Jormungand announced, sliding off his chair and ducking around the still-open door into the living room. Fenris started wiggling on Gabriel's lap in a clear attempt to get down.

"|Use your words, Fenris.|" Gabriel got up too, Fenris eagerly following his older brother out of the room while Gabriel looked at Slepnir. "|You coming?|"

"|Yeah.|" Slepnir deposited his cup in the sink before leaving as well. Gabriel glanced at the Weasleys.

"I'm gonna warn you now, game night can get pretty intense so you might want to sit some of these out."

* * *

Gabriel couldn't say he hadn't warned them.

By the time they left the entire group looked a bit frazzled. Considering that there had been several incidents of magical interference, the card games had been rife with cheating, and at one point someone [aka Slepnir] had 'accidentally' caught the board on fire when he'd guessed wrong in Clue, Gabriel also didn't blame them for that.

Of course, game night had also led to demands that the Weasleys be invited back over for Christmas.

"|Why?|"

"|I like them.|" Fenris was draped over Gabriel, fiddling with a mess of tinkertoys he'd cobbled together.

"|So we should invite them over?|"

"|You said they were your friends.|" Slepnir didn't even look up as he commented, totally absorbed in his own creation. "|Wait, no - Jor, it's gonna fall over if you put that on top!|"

"|You said I could help.|"

"|But you're doing it wrong!|"

"|Okay, I think it's time for bed.|" Gabriel picked up Fenris as he stood, taking the Tinkertoy creation with little complaint, and the fact that Fenris simply burrowed into his shoulder was enough of an indication that it was bedtime for him, at least.

"|I'm not tired,|" Jormungand automatically replied.

"|Okay then.|" Gabriel yawned and stretched theatrically, grinning as both boys on the floor stifled yawns of their own. "|But you look pretty tired to me.|"

"|That's cheating,|" Slepnir protested, the last word fading out as he tried to catch another yawn.

"|Uh-huh. Bed.|"

* * *

"|I want a magic lesson.|"

Gabriel tilted his head back to properly look at Slepnir. He was lying on the sofa with his legs propped up against the back, a runes book held in one hand over his face. "|Magic lessons, huh? What for?|"

Slepnir's arms were stubbornly crossed. "|You keep saying we're not supposed to do magic on our own but you never _teach _us anything and most of the time you're not _here _to watch us.|"

"|Actually, I meant if there was anything specific you wanted to learn?|" If Slepnir was so determined to learn magic, who was Gabriel to stop him? Especially since refusing would make him a bit of a hypocrite, considering the reason he was gone so often was because he attended a magic school.

Slepnir's expression changed in an instant, arms dropping to his sides. "|Really? You will?|"

"|Why not?|" It's not like anyone else was in the house to remind him what a bad idea it was. Now that Gabriel thought about it, Vali and Narvi being gone might have been one of the reasons the three boys had been so fidgety lately, since they were used to their brothers being around most of the time.

Slepnir whooped and ran out of the room. "|He said yes!|"

Gabriel grinned, swinging his legs to the side and sitting up as three expectant boys tumbled into the room, all bearing broad grins. "|Looks like you guys planned this one out.|"

"|I wanna do illusions.|"

"|Hold on, Fenris, I don't think we got that far.|" Gabriel moved to the floor, letting his legs spread out in front of him, and Jormungand moved to mirror his position. "|Let's see, where did we leave off?|"

Fenris looked at Jormungand, who looked at Slepnir, who shrugged and looked at Gabriel. "|I don't know.|"

"|Well, we'll start of easy, since you guys haven't used it in a while.|" Gabriel raised a fist and let the fingers spread theatrically slowly, sparks spilling out between them and vanishing before they hit the carpet. "|Find your magic first, remember. You've got to get a good hold of it before you try anything too hard - especially since you guys are a little out of practice.|"

"|How?|" Fenris's eyes were fixed on Gabriel, an intense green stare.

"|Think, first. Your power isn't really gathered into a core, like the Weasleys have.|" Gabriel gestured widely, from his head to the floor. "|It's everywhere. It's a part of you, a part of your body and your mind, and learning to use it the right way is like learning to walk - you gotta take it slow, and you're going to fall down a couple times, and you need to make sure not to do anything before you're ready.|"

Gabriel glanced between the three of them. "|Understand?|"

"|Yeah.|"

"Mm hm."

"|Good.|" Most likely he'd already given them this speech before, so Gabriel decided to trust that they were telling the truth.

"|Okay. Now I want you to look. Just think and look for it. It's sort of like meditating - you know what that is, right?|" A couple of mildly confused nods. "|Just, relax. Don't think about anything. Just sit there quietly. You think you can manage that?|" Less confused nods from all three of them. "|Okay. Because you've got to find your magic before you can use it properly. Because, when you're learning to walk, you can see your legs, right? You know they're there, and you can see them, you've just got to figure out what to do with them. Magic is like that, except the first part is a bit trickier.|"

Slepnir was frowning hard, hands clamped over his knees. Gabriel pulled his hands away gently, making Slepnir look up. "|Not like that. You need to relax. Try it, alright?|"

Slepnir nodded, closing his eyes again. He took a deep breath, and Gabriel noticed Jormungand sneaking looks at Slepnir and copying him.

"|Jor. Try it yourself. If you keep opening your eyes you're not going to be able to do it.|"

"|I don't know what to do.|"

"|Relax.|" Gabriel said reassuringly. "|That's the first step. Try concentrating on your breathing.|" He inhaled gesturing towards himself to draw Jormungand's attention to him. "|In. And out.|"

Jormungand copied Gabriel's breaths, eyes sliding shut. Gabriel led him through the motions until he could sense that Jormungand had gotten the whole meditation bit, and then sat back to wait.

He didn't have to wait long.

Slepnir's eyes snapped open, accompanied by a sharp burst of magic which wrenched his brothers back to full awareness.

"|Hey!|"

"|It's okay.|" Gabriel put a hand on Slepnir's shoulder. "|That was good, but I want you to try and not flail around with it, alright? Get your fine control back and all that. Think you can do that?|"

"|Yeah.|" Slepnir was grinning widely, and Jormungand looked a little jealous that his older brother had gotten there first.

"|Great. Why don't you go sit over there so you don't mess up your brothers again on accident?|"

"|Okay.|"

* * *

It took several more tries before anyone other than Slepnir managed to get a handle on their magic [or _seidr, _to use the Norse term] and for all three of them to start excitedly spilling sparks everywhere, in various colors, and Gabriel eventually sent them all out into the yard to practice while he watched from the steps so nothing would accidentally be burned down.

It was probably a good thing the house was warded, because all the magic being performed that night would have definitely freaked out the neighbors.

Gabriel dodged a rocket-like burst of sparks, orange and red sputtering out as it hit the railing on the back porch and left a black mark. Gabriel repaired it almost absentmindedly, calling out to his boys. "|I hope no one's getting maimed over there!|"

"|We're okay!|" Slepnir had taken to the spell like a house on fire - which was why Gabriel was here, or else that metaphor might become reality. His oldest had always had a way with fire spells, and it seemed like this simpler one was no exception.

A fountain of yellow sparks shot into the sky in an imitation of fireworks and Jormungand gleefully added a rocket of blue, the two colors mingling and creating the illusion of green. Gabriel grinned at the sight, raising his hand and bringing the makeshift firework closer to the ground so it didn't escape the wards. "|Fenris, are you just going to let them do something that cool on their own?|"

Fenris whooped and leaped across the lawn, trailing a dark emerald green in his wake. The back yard was a riot of color noise, magic flashing between the three boys and occasionally Gabriel himself, when he joined in to send them in the right direction or stop them from doing anything to crazy.

Considering neither of the three boys had used magic in at least seven hundred years, they had a surprising amount of energy, but not even nonhumans could use magic indefinitely. Gabriel put a halt to the display before they got too wrung out, but even so there was little protest as he chivvied them back inside.

Slepnir crashed on the sofa and Jormungand and Fenris seemed all too willing to follow suit, so Gabriel flew them all up to his bed and let his sons wriggle under the covers, tangling up with each other in the way that they always seemed to end up sleeping, like they were afraid the others might vanish in the night if they weren't touching each other.

It was a sad, but perfectly reasonable, fear, considering they'd only reunited last year.

All three of them were also determinedly wrapped around Gabriel in some way - Fenris was sprawled over Gabriel's chest in what had become his customary sleeping spot, and Gabriel never had the heart to move him [not that he'd wanted to, most of the time]. It might have been because of the same fear, or maybe they just liked company when they slept, but either way Gabriel wasn't about to insist that they stop.

There was, however, one downside.

Gabriel was abruptly woken up when someone kicked him in the ribs. Jormungand was clutching him in his sleep, brow creased and eyes squeezed shut. Gabriel immediately [and carefully] tried to tuck him closer, but the simple movement caused Jormungand to gasp and sit bolt upright.

"|Jor, shhh-|" Gabriel's hasty whisper didn't seem to help, and Jormungand swallowed thickly and then buried his face in Gabriel's shirt.

"|Hey, hey, it's alright.|" Gabriel reached carefully over Fenris to hug Jormungand. "|It's just a dream, Jor, you're fine.|"

Jormungand was taking deep, gasping breaths, making little sobbing noises, and Gabriel put a hand on his back, rubbing it up and down. "|Breathe, Jor, you're fine, I'm right here.|"

It was a miracle Slepnir and Fenris hadn't woken up, even though the latter had rolled away from the commotion in his sleep and nestled up against his oldest brother instead.

Jormungand was clinging to Gabriel, his hands fisted in the latter's shirt where a spreading wet patch could be seen. "|Jor, sweetheart, it's alright, it was just a dream.|"

Almost imperceptibly, Jormungand shook his head.

Gabriel's stomach dropped.

_It was a memory?_

He hugged Jormungand closer and ran a hand through his curls, making shushing noises despite the momentary panic he'd gotten. "|You're alright, Jor, everything's okay now.|"

"|Móðir isn't.|" Jormungand hiccuped and Gabriel was not at all prepared for this conversation because now his insides seemed to have frozen.

Jormungand wrapped his arms around Gabriel harder when Gabriel didn't answer. "Faðir?"

Gabriel let out a long breath, but didn't say anything right away. Jormungand looked up with a tearstained face, sniffling and wiping an arm across his cheeks. "I thought-" Jormungand's voice broke and he took a deep breath, and his hands felt like they were about to rip Gabriel's shirt in two. "|She...Móðir...she's not going to come back, is she?|" Jormungand's voice was shaky, but he kept going. "|She's-|" He started sniffling uncontrollably again, breath coming in hiccups, unable to say it.

Gabriel leaned forward so that his forehead was resting on Jormungand's. His eyes were closed when he spoke, because he didn't think he wanted to see the expression on his son's face. "|I'm sorry.|" His voice came out as a ragged whisper.

There was an answering sniffle, and Jormungand returned to squeezing Gabriel's chest nearly hard enough to bruise. Someone echoed the sniffle and Gabriel realized it was coming from the side of the bed Slepnir and Fenris were on. Glancing over revealed that a wet-eyed Slepnir was curled protectively around Fenris, who was sniffling into his sleep shirt. They had obviously overheard the conversation.

"|Oh, sweetheart.|" Gabriel pulled both of them towards him, turning the four of them into a huddle in the middle of the bed. "|Shh, shh.|" The worst part was that he couldn't say anything that would reassure them, because what could he possibly say that would help? For them, it had been barely a year ago.

"|I'm sorry,|" Gabriel said again, wishing that somehow taking the blame could fix this whole disaster, but time was not so easily changed, especially not with just two words from a lonely angel.

* * *

**I am so fucking sorry.**

**Review...?**


	46. Christmas and A Discussion of Old Things

**I really am sorry for how the last chapter ended, but I did need to include some fallout from what happened to the boys and Hel. If any of you read the side story, 'Second Chances and Endings', you'll know what Angrboda [who was Hel, Fenris, and Jormungand's biological mother] died shortly before they were all kidnapped, etc.**

**If you haven't read that, maybe go over and give it a look and it'll help you understand things a bit better.**

**Anyway *cough* moving on from the sadness of the last chapter! I promise there's some more lighthearted stuff to be found here...unless something changes while I'm writing but I'll try not to become George R R Martin here.**

**There was probably a better comparison I could have used but he was the first evil author that popped to mind.**

**[Psst: over 770 reviews? You guys are awesome]**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter**

* * *

When Vali and Narvi came back from their short vacation a day or so later, they didn't say anything about Jormungand being even quieter than usual, or Fenris trailing them around all the time, or Slepnir being a little more insistent on keeping his brothers within view.

They didn't say anything to Gabriel, either.

What Vali did say was fairly innocent.

"|Hey, Slepnir, isn't your birthday coming up?|"

Slepnir brightened instantly. "|Hey! It is!|"

Gabriel swung around on his chair to face the room as a whole, seeing his oldest son looking expectantly at him. "|So it is. Did you forget it was December?|"

"|No.|"

"|Hey,|" Fenris said, grinning in a way that was all Gabriel, "|Your birthday's on _Christmas.|"_

"Really?" Narvi ruffled Slepnir's hair, ignoring the whine of complaint. "|Maybe we should give you Christmas presents instead of birthday ones.|"

Slepnir looked so scandalized at the idea that Gabriel started laughing. "|Don't worry, I'm sure you'll all get cool stuff anyway.|"

"|We should have a party,|" Jormungand said quietly, making Vali look at him in surprise [they hadn't heard him speak since before they left].

"|Yeah!|" Slepnir stood up, bouncing off the sofa where he'd been sitting. "|A double party!|"

"|Double party?|" Narvi questioned.

"|For Christmas, too.|" Slepnir said it like it should have been obvious.

"|Can't have a party without guests.|" Gabriel leaned on the back of his chair, humming in thought. "|Who would we invite, though?|"

"|The Weasleys.|"

"|The Weasleys? Why?|"

Slepnir shrugged. "|I like them. And we don't know anyone else.|"

He had a point there.

"|What about Hel?|" Vali suggested hopefully. Also a reasonable suggestion, considering he'd met his sister a grand total of twice.

"|I'll see if I can contact her.|" As Hel was currently making up for lost time and could be literally anywhere around the globe [except in the oceans, but even that was a possibility] trying was about as good as Gabriel could do.

"|Cake too.|" Slepnir insisted.

"|You want to invite cake?|"

"Faðir!" Slepnir threw a pillow at Gabriel, who didn't bother dodging and let it bounce off his face. "|No! Cake as in for eating!|"

"|I know, I know!|" Gabriel said with a wide grin. "|Of course we'll have cake, what kind of party would it be without any cake?|" He paused, remembering the kinds of cake Slepnir would remember, which were nothing like the kinds they had today. "|What kind do you want?|"

"|Isn't there just one?|"

"|Slepnir, allow me to introduce you to some of the wonders of the modern world. There are so many kinds of cake.|"

* * *

Gabriel garnered several important things from the reply letter the Weasleys sent. Yes, they were coming, and so were the two oldest brothers if that was alright. Yes, they would bring something along. And, according to a small warning footnote from Ron, Mrs. Weasley was determined to contribute at least half of Christmas dinner and enough sweaters to outfit an army.

In hindsight, he probably could have expected that this would happen. Mrs. Weasley seemed to have thoroughly gotten over whatever dislike she held for him when the Order found out that he was Gabriel and not Harry.

In any case, time relentlessly marched forward and in what seemed like very little time the house was flooded with [mostly ginger] guests and family members.

Arthur Weasley had greeted Gabriel with a handshake and very sincere thanks, which Gabriel brushed off and Slepnir peered around him at the three unfamiliar Weasley men.

"|You said to invite the Weasleys, didn't you? So they all came.|"

Gabriel had taken the liberty of inviting Michael and Hermione as well, clearing it with Slepnir first since it was his birthday after all, and they were greeted exuberantly by Fenris, who had shown up to the door to see what was taking so long and promptly dragged the both of them into the living room to show off the tree.

It had taken about five hours to decorate, which Gabriel blamed on the fact that everyone had insisted on decorating it a certain [different] way and everyone else blamed on him buying one that big because holy crap, Dad, it barely fits in the living room, but they'd gotten there in the end.

It certainly seemed to leave and effect on Hermione, who stared and then shook her head. "Of course you'd have a huge tree."

Michael had stopped at the sight of Vali and Narvi. "Hey, weren't you two at Hogwarts during the Tournament?"

"The tail end of it," Narvi replied from his position lounging on the couch. "Hi again, by the way, I don't think we were ever properly introduced."

The Weasleys had caught up by now, and Gabriel's living room was quickly overrun by curious redheads. Fred and George brightened as they noticed the other pair of twins.

"Didn't expect you two to be here!"

"Well, it is kind of our house." Vali brushed his hair back from his face. "Well, not so much ours as Dad's. Nice earring." The latter was directed towards a Weasley Gabriel had never met before, who sported an earring made up of an actual tooth - or rather, fang - and a ponytail to rival Vali's. He nodded, but frowned in confusion.

"Wait, your Dad's?"

"Ah yes, introductions." Gabriel clapped his hands, drawing the attention of those in the room. "I'm sure at least some of you have met Vali and Narvi before, though I don't think under those names-"

"I thought you were named Vincent," Ron said, sinking onto another part of the sofa.

"Draws less attention than Vali," replied Vali, waving a hand dismissively. "I mean, it's not exactly a common name."

"I suppose not," Hermione agreed. "But, you mentioned your Dad?"

"As I was about to say," Gabriel continued, "That would be me."

Another unfamiliar Weasley did a double take, glancing between the twins and Gabriel. "Excuse me?"

"Don't act so surprised." Gabriel rolled his eyes. "I might look fifteen now but that doesn't mean I am."

"Lucky for us, or else we might have never existed," joked Narvi. "I'm Narvi, by the way."

"Charlie," The same Weasley introduced himself. "But then, how old are you?"

Gabriel tried not to let himself grin [and had a feeling he wasn't doing that well] as Vali and Narvi glanced at each other.

"It's 2013, right?" Vali asked, more thinking out loud than anything else.

Narvi snorted. "For another week or two, yeah."

"Shut up, I was just making sure. It's not like either of us were keeping track of the date."

"Alright, alright." Narvi smacked Vali's shoulder. "Touchy."

"Are you going to keep us in suspense all night?" Fred and George had made themselves comfortable leaning over the back of the sofa, since it wasn't pressed up against a wall, and Gabriel spotted Mrs. Weasley slipping a squishy-looking package under the tree.

"Fine." Narvi flicked George on the head, mistaking one twin for another, probably on purpose. "If you're so curious, I'm nine hundred and fifteen."

Ginny nearly fell off the end of the sofa at the same moment that the doorbell rang.

Gabriel slid past a gaping Earring Guy and out into the hall in time to see Jormungand go running past, swinging the door open excitedly. "Hel!"

"|Hello to you too,|" Hel said, sweeping in and scattering snowflakes over the floor. Sigyn, of all people, followed her in, determinedly avoiding looking Gabriel in the eye. "Merry Christmas!"

"Merry Christmas," Jormungand repeated gleefully, "And happy...birthday Slepnir!" He had to pause a moment to remember the right word.

"|Is it really?|" Hel smiled at Gabriel. "Lucky I brought presents, then. How are you?"

"Wonderful." Gabriel hugged her, feeling the tingle of the glamour over her left side. "What about you?"

"Egypt was fabulous, your description of the pyramids wasn't even close to really seeing them." Hel brushed the last vestiges of snow off her cloak before hanging it up, revealing a long dress. "|Jormungand, where are your brothers?|"

"|Upstairs! I'll go get them.|" Jormungand darted off again, pounding up the stairs two at a time. Hel grinned after him.

"They seem happy," she said, moving out of the way as Sigyn wordlessly swept past into the room full of Weasleys. A startled "Mom!" reached Gabriel's ears.

"They are," was all he said in reply. "Would you like to see the tree? Everyone else insists that it's too big but I don't see the problem."

"I'm inclined to think they may be right."

The Weasleys looked no less shocked than when Gabriel had left the room, but if the way they were looking between him and Sigyn was any indication Narvi's name had been long forgotten.

Michael's mouth was open. "But-" Ne looked very lost. "If _you're _their dad - and she's-"

"Exellent deduction, Holmes," Gabriel said dryly, pretending he didn't notice Hel trying not to laugh at the tree which was still slightly bent over at the top despite the fact that he'd made the room slightly bigger on the inside. "Anything else completely obvious you'd like to point out?"

"I think," Ginny said slowly, "That nothing here is going to surprise me anymore."

A door slammed open and Slepnir grinned widely. "Hel!"

"|I heard it was your birthday,|" Hel teased, waving a small package she had pulled from nowhere. "|I wonder who this could be for?|"

Slepnir was across the room in an instant, and if Gabriel hadn't been able to tell otherwise he would have thought Slepnir used magic. The package vanished in the same instant and Slepnir frowned at his sister's suddenly empty hand. "|No fair.|"

"|Hello to you to.|" Hel hugged him quickly. "|Happy birthday!|"

"|It's actually tomorrow,|" Slepnir corrected her. "|But Faðir says Christmas day is for families only.|"

"|Wise words,|" Hel agreed. "|How about you introduce me to all of these redheads?|"

"|Okay!|" Slepnir turned around and the first Weasley he came across [who happened to be Charlie] made him stop. "|I don't know you.|"

Charlie looked nonplussed. "Is there a translator somewhere?"

"Get used to it," Gabriel advised, "And if you really want to know just ask the twins."

* * *

Gabriel was not entirely sure how he managed to get all nine Weasleys, Hermione, Michael, Sigyn, Hel, and three hyperactive boys seated around the magically-extended table, but it somehow happened and everyone was talking to their neighbors while dishes were passed around. Gabriel doubted anyone realized [or that anyone who did cared] that he had simply snapped it all up a few hours beforehand to ensure that it wouldn't vanish as soon as it was eaten.

The Weasleys took up one end of the table, but even so Sigyn was seated as far away from Gabriel as she could, with Vali, Narvi, and Hel in between her and Gabriel. Slepnir [as the birthday boy] was seated at the head of the table, but kept leaning over to try and talk to Sigyn. All three boys had been ecstatic when they realized that she was there, and Gabriel realized with a start that for the past year Sigyn had been a much more permanent figure in their lives than he had, even though none of them save Slepnir had known her previously.

Bill [who Gabriel had finally been introduced to] was sitting next to Sigyn, and he kept giving her what he probably thought were sneaky glances out of the corner of his eye. It made Gabriel wonder where the Weasleys _thought _his children had come from. Obviously, you needed a guy and a girl to make kids.

"|You _work _with dragons?|"

Charlie glanced around at the sudden shout from Gabriel's end of the table. "What?"

"Slepnir really likes dragons." Gabriel grinned across the table. "I mean he absolutely loves them. You probably just made his day."

"Oh." Charlie grinned back. "In that case, I've got a ton of stories - the reserve is down in Romania, but we get a ton of different kinds of dragons." He went on describing different kinds of dragons, keeping Slepnir listening with rapt attention. Various conversations were all going at once and the room was full of people talking and laughing with half-eaten dishes on the table and Gabriel thought he understood why humans liked doing this so much.

Hermione, daughter of dentists though she may have been, just rolled her eyes when the birthday cake - a large chocolate confection - was brought out. "You probably can't get cavities anyway," was her only dry remark when Gabriel raised his eyebrows in a silent question, "So I figure it's not worth fighting about."

Once the food had been finished, however, Slepnir dragged Charlie into the living room to show off all the movies they owned that were about dragons.

"You have a TV?" Hermione asked.

"What's a TV?" Ron questioned, puzzled. Mr. Weasley had drifted over as well, and was staring in delight at the flatscreen.

"Amazing!" He said. "I've never seen one like that before...but why have it around?"

Jormungand was staring at Mr. Weasley in confusion. "|So we can watch movies,|" He said, tone clearly indicating that it should have been obvious.

Gabriel quickly translated, which only seemed to add to Hermione's confusion. "But electricty doesn't work around magic," she insisted. "So unless you've found a way around that-"

"|Of course it does,|" Fenris interrupted. "|Why wouldn't it work around magic?|"

"|It doesn't work around wizard magic,|" Gabriel explained. "|Theirs is different, remember.|"

"|That's stupid.|" Slepnir declared. "|You mean they've never seen a movie?|"

"What are you talking about?" Ginny asked.

"Slepnir is probably about to insist that we watch a movie since you've never seen one before," Gabriel gestured to where his oldest was already rummaging through DVDs. "It's a complete scandal, apparently."

"We've seen a movie," Michael objected. "We all went out last summer, remember? You recommended one."

"Oh, yeah, that Star Trek sequel."

Ron shook his head. "That was intense. I still think they had to have used magic to do some of that."

Bill looked over at the shelf full of movies. "Seriously? Muggles can do something that good?"

"Well, they've got electricity, which is one step farther than wizards have gone in the last, what was it, century or so?" Gabriel pointed out. Mr. Weasley looked even more fascinated.

"But how do they put dragons in movies when they don't know they exist?" He questioned.

"Well, this one in particular is animated, so there aren't any actual people in it-" Gabriel held up his hand when he saw another question forming. "I'm not going to explain animation to you and if you're that curious we might as well just watch it."

* * *

Gabriel had a nagging feeling that he may have started something beyond his control by introducing Mr. Weasley to animation.

Mrs. Weasley, at least, didn't seem to appreciate her husband's newfound obsession, but she was at least somewhat mollified by the reaction to the sweaters she'd made. It was a little funny to see Fenris going around with his tunic sticking out from under a blue knitted sweater, which didn't bear a letter because he had never been formally introduced to the Weasleys.

"They're cute, you know." Michael mused, watching Jormungand tinker with an iPod to see if magic would really make it break.

"Of course they are," Gabriel scoffed. "They're my kids."

"I can tell." Michael glanced back at Gabriel. "I mean, even if they look like you do now, they sort of act like you."

Gabriel hummed noncommittally in response and automatically moved out of the way as Hel sat down next to him.

"It's nice to be here," She remarked, and then seemed to notice Michael. "Oh - did I interrupt something?"

"Not at all," Gabriel reassured her before Michael could say anything. "This is Michael, by the way."

"Hi," Michael said, waving tentatively.

"Hello," Hel replied. "So you're a wizard, correct?"

"Yeah," Michael agreed, barely reacting to the male specification. "I mean, I'm a wizard."

"This new kind of magic is fascinating," Hel mused. "I've noticed that it's restricted to humans, though."

"Isn't there just one kind of magic?" Hermione had wandered over and was frowning thoughtfully.

Hel laughed. "Of course not! What kind of narrow worldview is that?"

Hermione frowned even deeper and seated herself on the arm of the sofa. "But what other kinds of magic could there be? I've never read any."

Hel shook her head. "You think humans would have discovered this? From what I've heard of your society, they would never bother trying to find out what kind of magic those fantastic creatures you know of have, much less other kinds."

"You mean creatures have different magic?" Ron frowned. "What's different about it?"

"Can you turn yourself invisible with a thought?" Hel challenged. "Or - what is the name of that serpent in the lake?"

"You mean the Loch Ness kelpie," Gabriel supplied.

"Exactly. Can it not change it shape into anything at all, with merely a thought? Do you mean to say that you can do that?"

"Well, there's Animagi," Hermione replied, "But an Animagus can only change into one animal."

"...I've never heard of Animagi," Hel admitted. "But don't you think that assuming everything has the same magic is like assuming that humanity is the only life in the universe?"

"Muggles don't have magic," Ron pointed out.

"How do you know for sure?" Gabriel asked. "You're right, of course, most humans don't have a single bit of 'magical' power in them, but who's to say that they don't have something else?"

"Do they?" Ginny looked interested, as opposed to skeptical, like most of the other guests.

Gabriel gave it a moment of thought. "Not like the kind of power you know, no," He said finally. "But I've met the Winchesters, and I've got to say I've never seen a pair of humans do so much." It was precisely the absence of power that made it so remarkable, but Gabriel would be damned before he admitted any of this to the brothers themselves.

"But what other kind of magic is there?" Hermione persisted. "There's wizard magic, but what else could there be?"

"What else is there in the world?" Gabriel asked rhetorically. "Pagans, for one, are on a whole different level."

"...You mean like the old gods?" Ginny frowned. "But you're an angel, so shouldn't that mean-"

"I assume you're referring to Daddy dearest." Gabriel waved a hand dismissively. "Sure, there's Him upstairs, but there are also gods, small g, plural. Kali, Balder, Hermes - now _there _was someone who understood the whole appeal of tricks. I mean, until the Romans came along and bastardized the entire pantheon and turned him into Mercury. Had horrible personality troubles after that, kept switching between Greek and Roman, never quite the same. Oh, and Coyote! Damn, nearly forgot him, but what can you do? The Native gods were never quite as popular in history."

Hermione's expression had been growing increasingly more incredulous. "You mean to say that every single god that has ever been worshipped actually _exists? _And you _know _them?"

"Not all of them. That would be a little impossible - do you have any idea how many there are? Humans are quite imaginative when it comes to religion."

"But how d'you know them?" Michael asked eagerly. "I mean, you're an angel an all."

"Hello?" Gabriel waved a hand at Hel, who looked at him in surprise. "Where did you think these guys came from? I hid out with the pagans for ages. Believe me, my siblings would have been the exact opposite of thrilled if they knew I had kids."

"_You _were a god?" Ginny sat up in surprise.

"Why not?" Gabriel grinned. "I mean, being worshipped and followed by thousands isn't exactly a bad deal, even if it's died out quite a bit."

"You've got a point there," Ron muttered, then winced when Hermione smacked him on the head. "Ow! Hermione!"

"So are you a god - er, goddess, too?" Michael asked Hel, who stiffened. The reaction did not go unnoticed by anyone sitting nearby.

"Technically, they all are," Gabriel intervened quickly, "But none of them are old enough to have gotten a proper domain - I mean, you can't just look at a baby and decide that it's going to be the goddess of wrath or something like that, they've got to grow up first." He made a face. "And then, well, it all sort of died out before they got old enough."

"Died out?" Fred frowned, having wandered over. "What do you mean?"

"Well, there were all the old religions, and then Christianity started getting popular in Europe - and Islam in the more southern areas, I suppose - and it sort of steamrollered over everything else. Strangely enough, people don't usually count Judaism in with that group, even though they worship basically the same thing."

"Which is?" Hermione trailed off leadingly.

"Dad," Gabriel said simply. "And I'm included in that whole mess as well, archangel and all, but it's not quite the same thing, you know?"

"I think I get it." Ginny leaned against the back of the sofa. "But why become a god? Being an angel was pretty good, wasn't it?"

Gabriel's grin fell.

"Not necessarily," he said, noting that interest had suddenly sharpened with his slip-up. "Come on. Being personally worshipped?" He covered his face with another wide smile. "Way better than just getting prayed to all the time. That happened with godhood, too, but much more personal and much better benefits."

"There aren't any benefits to being an archangel?" Michael asked carefully.

"Besides being one of the six most powerful beings in literally all of creation?" Gabriel shrugged. "Not many."

Attention was sharply diverted after that when whatever Jormungand did to the iPod created a bang like a gun going off. Looking over sharply, Gabriel saw a sheepish-looking Jormungand hastily putting out sparks that had leaped onto the cuffs of his hoodie and a smoking iPod lying on the floor.

"|I'm not buying you a new one.|"

"|I know,|" Jormungand said glumly. "|I just wanted to see what would happen.|"

* * *

Hermione cornered Gabriel in a relatively deserted kitchen a few minutes later. "What you said," she began, "About your siblings not being happy if they knew you had kids - were you being serious?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well-" Hermione looked nonplussed. "Because they're your family."

She looked even more confused - and a little bit worried - when Gabriel started laughing.

"Hermione," he said, turning to face her properly, "The last time I talked to one of my brothers, he stabbed me. With my own sword. Trust me, there's not a whole lot of family love going on between us."

Hermione had gone slightly pale. "But - if he was your brother-"

"That doesn't mean he gives a shit about me."

"Is that why you became a god?" Hermione asked after a moment.

Gabriel laughed, but it was quieter and a little more tired. "Are you trying to host a therapy session, Hermione? Because I don't do touchy-feely."

"But if it was only one of your brothers," Hermione pressed, "Then surely-"

"Hermione," Gabriel interrupted, "Listen to me. Do you have any idea of how many siblings I have? Hundreds of millions of them. I haven't even _met_ most of them." He leaned back against the counter. "The whole idea of a family sticking up for each other and loving unconditionally is nice, but that's a human thing. However you spin it, angels and humans are just built differently." Gabriel shrugged. "It might be because you just have shorter lives. Maybe not. But the story stays the same."

Hermione surprised him with a hug.

"Whoa!"

"I don't know if angels can tell," Hermione said, breath tickling his ear, "Or if it's just you being thick, but that's really sad."

"Well, hey, I've always got family down here."

"_Still." _Hermione pulled away. "Gabriel..." It was the first time she'd called him that, as if Hermione was seeing for the first time beyond the vessel. "You know we're here for you, right?"

"That's super touchy-feely territory, Hermione, I don't know if I can go there." Gabriel had to take a minute to recover his voice, and he grinned reassuringly at her. "What do you say we rejoin the party?"

He ignored Hermione's protests that he hadn't answered her question and swept back into the living room. "|Hey, Slepnir, what do you think about pulling some of those Christmas crackers? They brought magical ones!|"

* * *

**SORRY SORRY SORRY**

**I really mean it this time, though.**

**Read and review, please!**


	47. Problems of Varying Severity

**Ah yes. Lucky number 47. Wait a minute. It's 49 that's lucky. Guess you guys will have to wait a few more chapters.**

**[I'm not sorry at all]**

**In case you haven't already guessed, I've given up on trying to avoid the evil author path.**

**To Elise: Thank you for your long review! It's totally understandable to be a little confused by gender neutrality, but I think the point you're missing is that how someone acts doesn't affect their gender identity. I don't feel the need to make Michael 'act' gender neutral, just like I don't feel the need to make Hermione or Ginny or Luna 'act' female and go shopping and gossip while they paint each other's nails and talk about boys.  
**

**See what I mean?**

**If you're still confused, I'd suggest looking it up, since I am not actually gender neutral and I don't think I'm the best person to explain it.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter**

* * *

Hel had apparently moved in permanently. Gabriel had come down Christmas morning to see her sitting on the sofa, calm as you please, and with her mask in place instead of a full glamour.

"What are you doing here?" Gabriel had immediately realized how rude that sounded. "Sorry, I just - didn't expect that you hadn't left yet."

"It's fine," Hel replied quickly, sitting up from where she had been leaning against the back of the sofa. "I just thought - well, travel gets a little tiring when you have gotten used to staying in one place for so long."

"It's fine if you stay," Gabriel reassured her quietly. "I just thought you wanted to travel more. But you always had a home here, Hel."

"I know." The thing was, judging by the way she had relaxed, Gabriel didn't think she did.

"I'm surprised Slepnir and the others aren't up yet," Hel commented, breaking the silence which had settled over them. Gabriel joined her on the sofa.

"They planned to get up early, but they stayed up so late last night that I don't think even Fenris will be up for a while."

Hel nodded. "I wasn't sure how long the party went on, but I thought something was odd."

A couple brightly patterned packages had been added to the mess under the tree, but Gabriel didn't bring attention to them. "I could set up a room for you, if you want. Personalized and everything. You can decorate it with whatever souvenirs you got. How was your trip, by the way?"

Hel seemed relieved by the subject change. "That would be nice...I think. And this world is so _vibrant." _She smiled. "There is so much more going on than there ever was in Helheim! And so much variety. Who would have ever thought that humans could invent so much?"

"Counting my siblings? Probably not a lot."

That made her laugh. "You know that is not what I meant."

"Alright, then, tell me what you did. Where was your favorite?"

"Well, I did like India, but I think..."

* * *

Gabriel was confronted with two problems as Christmas vacation drew to a close.

There was the usual mania in which Fenris attempted to insist that the Weasleys having met them meant it was okay for them to go with Gabriel to Hogwarts, which Gabriel refused on the grounds that Fenris didn't have enough proof and then spent a few hours making it up to him.

Which, in this case, meant a few hours playing and badly losing at various games which were picked seemingly at random. Gabriel always made sure not to make it too obvious that he was loosing on purpose, otherwise Fenris would just get even madder.

The other problem was Sigyn.

Gabriel had no idea why she'd even shown up for Christmas, since so far as he'd asked for her help she had mysteriously vanished on personal trips every time he came home, seemingly determined not to spend a minute within fifty miles of Gabriel. He didn't blame her, of course, but it was a little disappointing to know that Sigyn's resolve hadn't softened a bit in the nine or so centuries separating now and when she'd kicked him out.

Despite all this, however, she'd continued to stay in the house after Christmas.

Gabriel had no idea why.

Vali and Narvi might have convinced her, but Sigyn didn't let anyone have _that _much influence over her, and Gabriel wasn't entirely sure she'd make an exception for her sons. Whatever her [completely mysterious] reasons, it didn't come hand in hand with Sigyn paying any actual attention to Gabriel again.

Which was fine, because this actually made sense.

Unfortunately, it seemed that the other occupants of the house were not nearly as willing to let the matter lie.

"I have no idea," Balthazar began, the usual glass in hand and back from wherever he'd been a few days ago, "Why you would just let a woman like that pretend you don't exist."

"Because she'd probably stab me if I tried to talk to her."

"So? What's she going to do, kill you?" Balthazar drained his glass. "I mean, she's done plenty to me and I'm still kicking."

"That's because you're insane and keep flirting with her." Gabriel didn't look up from the book, but he hadn't read a single word of it since he'd picked it up. It was one of those days.

"Those twins of yours don't seem to mind. 'Course, that could just be that they like seeing me get stabbed with those fancy daggers of hers." Balthazar squinted at Gabriel. "Are you even listening to me, Gabriel?"

"Unfortunately, I've heard every word you just said."

"Shut it. What did you do, anyway? I've never seen a woman so determinedly offended by something."

"I pretended I was Loki and didn't tell her otherwise until after we were married."

Balthazar paused. "...And after the twins were born?"

"Yes. They were about thirty."

Balthazar whistled. "That would do it, I suppose. Sorry, I've got nothing."

"I wasn't _asking _for reconciliation advice. You were the one who started this conversation in the first place."

"When did you get married, anyway?"

"Why the sudden interest in my love life?" Gabriel closed the book with a snap and chucked it at Balthazar, who dodged with what looked like minimal effort.

"I was just _wondering. _No need to get so defensive. But I was thinking, since they didn't technically have divorce back then-"

Gabriel told his brother exactly where he could shove that train of thought and then closed the door in his face.

* * *

"And for your information, the Vikings had most definitely invented divorce and you don't want to know what it involved!"

* * *

Vali came up to Gabriel the night before he left. "Hey."

"Hey. Something on your mind?"

"Well-" Gabriel wasn't even looking at him and he could sense Vali's hesitation. "Not to be rude, but, are you fucking serious?"

Gabriel frowned and turned around. "Excuse me?"

"I mean about mom!" Vali gestured widely. "Because you were an _angel? __Seriously?"_

"What are you talking about?"

"When she kicked you out!"

"Oh." Understanding hit Gabriel in a flash. "Well, since you probably don't remember, I didn't exactly have a choice."

"So you just _let _her-"

"Vali, no one _lets _your mother do anything."

Vali crossed his arms stubbornly. "So? You just avoided her for nine hundred years?"

"Do I _look _like a masochist to you? Sigyn's still mad at me, in case you didn't notice."

"_Mom _is overreacting too." The firm statement surprised Gabriel. "_Honestly - _I only found out about all this because Narvi and me caught her trying to leave again and he finally asked her what he problem was staying here!"

"So what?" Gabriel asked sharply.

"So, I'm a little upset finding out that my parents split up because one of them couldn't handle the other's species!"

"I doubt it was just that-"

"If it was just the fact that you didn't tell her mom would have gotten over it by now."

Gabriel raised an eyebrow skeptically. "You seen pretty confident that you've got the measure of your mother."

"I'm confident that this whole mess is _stupid."_

"Is there a point to this, Vali?" Gabriel leaned back against the wall his trunk was propped on. "What do you want to do, Parent Trap us?"

"I don't know." Vali dropped his hands to his side and suddenly looked much younger. "Just...could you at least make an effort to get along better?"

"I'm not making any promises."

"_Dad-"_

"I'll try, Vali, but if I know anything about your mother I'll probably get stabbed for it."

* * *

Hogwarts was exactly as Gabriel remembered it. Not surprising, considering he'd only been gone a few weeks.

But honestly, it was starting to get a little boring.

Alright, sure, there were Michael and Hermione to keep things lively, and some sort of disaster was bound to happen sooner or later, but the last time Gabriel had spent more than a few years in once place humanity had still been struggling with basic concepts like not dumping their waste in the street.

And then there was the annoyance factor of people continually 'sneaking' up to him to ask when the next DA meeting was.

"Not today, ask someone else." Gabriel went practically on autopilot whenever he heard the question by now, and Michael wasn't much better.

"Honestly," Ne grumbled as Zacharias Smith haughtily stalked away. "You'd think they'd figure out to ask each other instead of coming up to you that obviously."

"Well, you never know. They are wizards."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Come on Michael, can you point out any wizard-raised person in this school and honestly tell me that they're not even a little bit dense?"

"Well when you put it like _that."_

* * *

Despite the annoyances and the fact that Gabriel had to go to classes again, things were fitting back together neatly and it seemed like for once a year at Hogwarts had arrived that would not be fraught with danger.

Except for the whole Dark Lord on the loose bit, but immediate danger at least seemed to be nowhere near.

Unless, of course, Hermione finally lost it and actually assaulted Fred and George.

"I don't understand what you've got against them," Gabriel said as he watched Fred hex Ernie MacMillian behind his back for the tenth time while George watched, instead of practicing with each other.

"It's not them," Hermione huffed. "Or, well, yes it is them! They've been getting started on this joke shop of theirs."

"So?"

"_So," _Hermione stressed the word dangerously as she attempted to glare a hole in the back of George's head, "They've been testing their products on people."

"What?"

"I can't even do anything about it, because they're testing it all on themselves-" Well, that made a lot more sense than what Gabriel had _thought _Hermione had meant. "-And they're not doing anything really danger, it's just this line of sweets they've invented to get out of class-"

"What kind?" Gabriel interrupted.

Hermione switched her glare to him. "You'd probably support them," She muttered darkly. "It's this range of sweets to make you ill, apparently - gives you a headache, fever, makes you throw up, or whatever, and then as soon as you leave the room you eat the second bit and skive."

No wonder it was grating on Hermione so much. She probably considered the candy a personal offense. "I've never heard of this before."

"Well, it's all based in Gryffindor tower, obviously, I don't think they've done much marketing." Hermione's tone changed to one of grudging respect. "Mind you, there was this thing they were demonstrating - a hat that turns your head invisible, and I've no idea how they did it!"

"Just the head?"

"Yes!"

"Seems kind of pointless."

"It's meant to be a joke, but yes, I suppose it is."

"Joke shop, huh?" Gabriel muttered to himself.

This warranted a further look.

* * *

Gabriel, from his place at the Ravenclaw table, saw Fred and George look up sharply when the owl landed in between them.

He also saw them exchange a puzzled look, figure out that it was indeed addressed to them, and open it. Their eyes opened wide as something with a gold glint fell onto the table.

Gabriel didn't bother trying not to grin and did so, and so fiercely that he made a couple of nearby Ravenclaws scoot away nervously. Michael didn't react besides trying to follow Gabriel's line of sight.

"What's made you so happy?"

"Nothing in particular."

Michael didn't press the subject, but Gabriel did see nir roll nir eyes.

The twins glanced around the hall from the note they had been huddled over, eyes meeting Gabriel's. Gabriel grinned wider, and put a finger over his lips.

Fred and George cornered him as soon as the period let out, and Gabriel let them yank him behind a pillar without resisting, meeting their incredulous faces with a lazy grin.

"Something I can do for you?"

"What is this?" Fred shoved the key into his face, while George held up the note that had been included.

_Have fun. -Gabriel._

"It looks like a key," said Gabriel, keeping a straight face.

"Why," George asked, "Did you send us a key to the Potter vault?"

"Who says it's for the Potter vault?"

The twins exchanged glances. "Is it?"

"Of course it is." Gabriel raised an eyebrow. "Did you think that fancy P engraving was just for kicks?"

"But why?"

"Because I felt like it." Gabriel crossed his arms. "Hermione told me about this shop venture of yours."

Slow understanding and something like critical levels of confusion dawned on the twins.

"But-"

"Why would you-"

"Archangel and all-"

"Want to fund us?"

"Because I felt like it," Gabriel repeated. "Besides, what the hell was I going to do with all that money? Might as well hand it over to someone who's going to put it to a good use." He winked. "Careful with that lot, and it could last you quite a while."

Fred seemed to have been rendered speechless.

"Harry," George breathed, "But - this is an _entire pureblood fortune."_

"Exactly. What the hell am I supposed to do with all that gold? I don't need it." He had plenty in his moneybag in case of emergency, besides, and only the wizarding world used that type of currency, so it would be completely useless as Gabriel intended to avoid the magical districts as much as possible.

Fred looked between the key in his hand and Gabriel. "You're serious."

"Deadly." Gabriel reconsidered. "Well, not deadly, but pretty damn close anyways."

"Because you like the idea of a joke shop?" George asked weakly.

Gabriel shrugged. "Someone's got to be the one who makes fun of everything else. Might as well be you two, I'm busy." He clapped them both on their shoulders. "Have fun with that. Don't waste it."

He wasn't sure whether the twins actually moved or just stood there staring in shock at the key, but Gabriel had a Runes class to get to.

* * *

A few days after the incident with the vault key, Gabriel came down to the Great Hall and was immediately pulled over to the Gryffindor table by a shaken-looking Hermione.

"What's happened?" He demanded as she shoved him into a seat next to Michael, who didn't look much better.

"Look at this!" Hermione thrust a newspaper in Gabriel's face, and he leaned back to make out the words.

_MASS BREAKOUT FROM AZKABAN_

"What's Azkaban again?"

"It's the wizard prison." Michael answered after a moment, and Gabriel's gaze dropped to the fifty or so pictures below the bold headline.

He recognized almost all of the family names listed - every single one of the escapees had had at least one relative in the graveyard at the end of last year.

"Shit."

"Basically." Hermione didn't even yell at him for swearing - or maybe she'd just given up on getting him to stop.

"I thought it was supposed to be impregnable or something?" Gabriel scanned through the article quickly as he asked.

"Sirius broke out," Hermione pointed out.

"Sirius is an Animagus. I doubt even _one_ of this lot can do that." Gabriel glanced around. "And while we're on this subject, is there a reason no one else seems worried?"

"No one else gets the newspaper," Michael reminded Gabriel. "Besides, look at Dumbledore."

Dumbledore and McGonagall were in deep conversation with frowns set into both their faces. From further down the table, Ackerly would occasionally send glares up at them - no surprise there, since the breakout was a serious hit to the credibility of her boss's claim that Voldemort was dead.

"Oh, I hope she's upset," Hermione said viciously, seeing where Gabriel was looking. "_Honestly..._at least we know she won't try and get another one of those Decrees passed."

It was true - Ackerly hadn't attempted to pass a single new rule after Gabriel had spent three weeks switching them around and making them say progressively more ridiculous things, completely baffling the teachers when they couldn't detect a single bit of forgery magic on the parchment.

Michael had glanced around the Hall again, and was now staring at the opposite end. "Is it just me," Ne said, tapping Gabriel on the shoulder without looking away, "Or is Malfoy staring at you?"

Gabriel followed nir line of sight and saw that yes, Draco was actually glaring at him rather darkly. Gabriel racked his mind for a reason why the youngest Malfoy would be glaring at him, and with a jolt remembered his promise from earlier in the year to meet Draco at the train station over break.

Whoops.

"One sec," he told Michael, gesturing at Draco with one hand and seeing the surprise on the latter's face when he realized he'd been noticed. Gabriel got up and meandered out of the hall.

He didn't have to wait long for Draco to follow.

"What was the point of all that nonsense if you weren't going to follow through?" Draco sounded angry, too, and he had every right to be.

"It wasn't nonsense. There was the brief issue of my having to go save someone and I couldn't make the train."

There was a brief pause, and Draco looked like he was deciding whether or not he believed Gabriel. "So you just thought I could handle it?"

"I don't know where you live, Draco, what did you expect me to do? Burst through a window and kidnap you to freedom?"

Draco didn't have an answer. He was staring at the ground. "I saw you looking at the news," He said. "I wanted to warn you-"

"_Don't _go there." The words came out sharper than Gabriel had intended, and he was suddenly inches in front of Draco, who jumped backwards slightly. "I don't care how much you feel live you have to make up, don't put yourself at risk to do that. You're fifteen."

"So are you."

Right. "I know that," Gabriel said. "And do you see me risking my ass?"

"You just said you had to go and save someone."

"Because I reasonably could and it wouldn't have gotten me killed. What would happen if someone found out that you'd tried to warn me?" Gabriel raised an eyebrow. "Judging from what I've seen of Voldemort before, nothing good."

Surprisingly, Draco didn't react that much to the name. Maybe he was desensitized, but Gabriel was fairly sure that Death Eaters called him 'The Dark Lord' or some other ridiculous title. He looked uncomfortable. "Is there somewhere else we can go?" He asked, glancing over his shoulder at the Hall.

Gabriel nodded. "Later." He was struck by a sudden memory from the year before last. "There's this place on the seventh floor - near a tapestry of some idiot with trolls in ballet costumes. There'll be a door there - go in it. Say tonight?"

Draco nodded tersely. "Fine."

"See you then."

* * *

Draco was exactly on time, which was odd, because Gabriel had never specified a time.

He opened the door on an astonished Gabriel, who was looking around at the small room with chairs and a fireplace.

"What's got you so shocked?"

"This room," Gabriel said, "Has somehow completely changed its dimensions."

That made Draco look around in surprise. "How do you know?"

"I've been in here before."

"What did it look like then?"

"Much bigger. Also lots more stuff, which would probably be very easy to get lost in now that I think about it. This room is a lot more suitable. I was trying to figure out how it worked."

"What room is this?" Draco poked one of the chairs apprehensively.

"Never mind," Gabriel said, collapsing into one gracelessly, "You wanted to talk about something privately. What?"

Draco's hand tightened on the back of the chair, and he didn't sit down. "When you said you could help," he began, "Did you mean it?"

"Help you not have to get an evil tattoo? 'Course."

"So about the train station-"

"I promise, that was an accident. I didn't mean to leave you high and dry."

Hesitantly, Draco took a seat. He was perched on the edge of the chair, and was leaning slightly forward. "Is-" He cleared his throat and tried again. "Do you think there's really anything you can do, or are you just leading me on?"

"Straight to the point." Gabriel couldn't sense anything other than blunt demand in Draco's question. He wasn't hopeful, not anymore, he just wanted to find a way out he wasn't even sure was there. "Yes, I do mean it."

"How?" Draco almost looked disappointed. "What can you do?"

"Probably a lot more than you think I can." Gabriel grinned. "Let's be honest, Draco, you underestimate me."

"So you're telling me you have a way of - of what, protecting me?"

"What are you asking me to do?"

Draco took a deep breath and took several moments before he answered.

"I don't want to be a death eater."

"Then I can help."

"How?"

"_How?" _Gabriel snorted. "You expect me to come up with a plan in twelve seconds? I can help, believe me, but I'm gonna need a little more time than that."

Draco's hands twined together and apart again in an unconscious motion. He didn't respond.

"...Something eating at you?"

"I'm supposed to take the dark mark next summer." The words came out so quietly that if Gabriel had been human he doubted he'd have heard them.

"Ah." Gabriel waited.

"I don't-" Draco took a deep breath. "I don't want _anything _to do with it. I - it doesn't _matter _who they hate, what they do is-" He broke off, hands clenching at the armrests. Gabriel didn't have to ask who 'they' were.

"I told you you deserved a choice," He told Draco, "And I meant it. I'm sorry about what happened over break, and I swear it won't happen again. Trust me, Draco."

Draco laughed quietly. "Trust you?" He said spitefully. "You have no idea - just because I'm a Slytherin, everyone assumes I'm evil. I can see the looks I get in that club - they all think I'm going to hex them as soon as they turn their backs on me. It doesn't matter if I have a choice or not, neither side is any better than the other!"

Gabriel stayed still and let Draco shout at him. The latter slumped into his seat once he'd finished yelling, energy seemingly used up.

"Sorry," He muttered after a moment.

"No, I get it. Sometimes you just gotta yell a bit." Gabriel stood up. "I'll let you know once I've got something, then. Room's all yours if you'd like to stay. See you, Draco."

* * *

It seemed to be just one disaster after another this year.

Nothing more had come up with Draco, luckily, aside from Gabriel paying a bit more attention to him - and more specifically, the people around him - during DA meetings. But that wasn't the problem.

The _problem _was that something was leeching off of Gabriel's horn.

He put it down for three seconds and this happened. Unbelievable.

Okay, maybe it was closer to say he put it down somewhere safe for about eight months, but still!

Even more unfortunately, Gabriel could tell exactly where it was being leeched off to when he looked closer.

"Great." His siblings just couldn't leave well enough alone, could they?

"What?" Michael had looked up at Gabriel's mutter. "Something the matter?" Ne asked, a little more carefully as ne took in Gabriel's frown.

"Nothing." Gabriel said shortly, standing up and shoving his things into a pile. "Something's just come up."

"What?" Michael stood up too, with a little more difficulty since ne was sitting on nir bed. They were both in Michael's still-private dorm room, working on various assignments and using the other as a sounding board. "Wh - you can't just leave!"

"Relax, Michael, you're acting like you think I'm going to vanish and not be back for three years. I'll be back before you know it." He intended to just leave a double, actually, but that would take to long and he needed to take care of whoever was channeling the Horn of Gabriel pronto.

Michael hesitated visibly. "But what-"

Gabriel flew off before Michael could finish nir question and before he could decide that the pain of using his wings again outweighed the need to go see what the fuck was happening.

* * *

_Ow._

_"Christ-" _Gabriel took a deep breath but left his hand on his back in a vain attempt to alleviate the sudden burn where his third pair used to meet his vessel. Fortunately, he'd landed on the right Earth.

"Alright, then." Gabriel glanced down at himself. "Yeah, this has to go."

He stepped onto the busy city street, the appearance of his old vessel melting over him and making him oh-so-slightly taller. Now that it was here, it was blindingly obvious where the signal was coming from, especially if you knew where to look.

But who had managed to engineer this?

Gabriel winced and braced himself, snapping out his wings and arriving in the middle of a bloodbath.

Gabriel almost forgot the ache in his wings as he looked around in horror at the bodies strewn around the room. The floor was covered in ashes and scars from a vicious fire, creating the shapes of bony and tattered wings which Gabriel did his best not to concentrate too hard on. Dropped angel blades lay here and there on the dirty floor of what looked like a factory, but most appeared to have either vanished or been scavenged by others who might have come by.

Gabriel breathed out slowly and rested a hand over his mouth.

This was bad.

_Very _bad.

The sigil was a stark red on the wall, fading away from the bright bluish-white it had been flashing when he'd arrived, and Gabriel wrenched his attention away from his fallen siblings as he stepped closer [and over someone] to get a closer look.

He touched it, scraping away a small amount and examining it.

"Griffin feathers, fairy bones...phew. Someone went to a lot of trouble." Gabriel very firmly told himself that he was not going to turn back around, and dusted his hand off. "Question is, why bring a bunch of angels here just to kill them?"

Who would be that desperate to kill angels?

Gabriel didn't have time to think of an answer as something tugged sharply at him - not his vessel, _him, _something he hadn't felt in ages, and Gabriel was being pulled through space with the force of the summoning until he landed awkwardly on a carpet - and ew, who had picked out this thing? - and rolled, bringing himself to his feet at the same moment that holy fire burst up in a circle around him.

There was someone standing just outside the circle.

"Gabriel," Metatron said jovially. "Glad to see you made it."

* * *

**Ehehehe.**

**Read and review!**


	48. Brothers and Holy Fire

**Sooo. What did you guys think of the cliffhanger I gave you?**

**Ehehe.**

**If you're wondering about the first scene [directly below] and what happens to Gabriel, I'd suggest looking up consulting-cannibal's Gabriel art - they have a piece specifically about this bit that I sort of drew inspiration from, so if you're wondering what's going on it's a good thing to check out. I'll try and put a link up on my profile!**

**A warning: A lot of the scene is going to be straight from 'Meta Fiction', because I really liked the way they wrote it and while I can't directly quote the entire plotline without looking it up I'll be sticking pretty close to it. If you're the kind of reviewer who dislikes that [YOU GUYS KNOW EXACTLY WHO YOU ARE] please _do not _leave a review about it. I know already. You've made your views on that point clear.**

**OH: and I don't know if anyone noticed last time, but I actually completed some official art for this story, and there is now a link to the tumblr post on my profile as well.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter.**

* * *

"Metatron," Gabriel replied coldly, eyes half on the ring of holy fire and half on his brother. "I'd say thanks for having me, but this isn't the greatest welcoming committee you've got here."

"Yes, well," Metatron mused, "You are an archangel, after all. Bit of a loose cannon." He smiled fakely at Gabriel. "Can't have you running around and ruining all of my good work, can we?"

"Work like kicking everyone out of Heaven?" Gabriel questioned. "Yeah, sounds like it's been tons of fun around here."

"What I did was for a reason," Metatron fiddled with a bowl in front of him and Gabriel stiffened as he struck a match. "It's all been in the works for years, you know, and it would be truly terrible if things were derailed so soon after they started."

He dropped the match.

The ingredients in the bowl went up in flame and Gabriel dropped to his knees with a muffled yell and a curse as something burned around his wings, and his wrists, tying them down with all the force of holy fire chains - which, if he wasn't mistaken, was exactly what they were.

"A little recipe of my own design." Even though Gabriel was hunched over and staring at the floor, Metatron was practically radiating smugness. "Works very nicely on angels, even archangels - especially when they're low on power, wouldn't you say, Gabriel?"

"Go fuck yourself."

Metatron actually tutted. "I can see you're not going to be very cooperative."

Gabriel raised his head and stared at Metatron in utter disbelief. "Cooperative?" He asked incredulously. "What the hell are you talking about, Metatron?"

"You didn't think I summoned you and went to all this trouble for nothing, did you?" Metatron took a seat behind his desk where, for some reason, an old-fashioned typewriter sat, and picked up a thin paperback. "No, no, Gabriel, I've been doing my research."

Gabriel recognized the book, too.

"Wow," he said, words dripping with as much sarcasm as he could muster. "The Winchester gospel. I'm terrified."

"Oh, it's not just the Winchesters who are in here." Metatron flipped over the book, and Gabriel saw that it was titled _Hammer of the Gods._ "You're included quite a few times - I have to say, I'm surprised that the Winchesters didn't figure out who you really were quicker. Trapping Sam in a time loop?" He raised his eyebrows. "Not exactly subtle on the power side of things."

"I wasn't trying to be subtle. I was trying to make a point."

"I'm sure you were." Metatron fanned through the pages of the book. "Although it didn't exactly make it through, did it? Lucifer still rose." He held up the book as if showing it off to Gabriel. "And that brings us to this - your supposed death."

Gabriel smirked, knowing it would rile Metatron. "Must not have worked as well as I thought, if you noticed."

"Oh, I doubt anyone else did." Metatron's voice grew colder. "None of them had quite as much reason to want to be sure you were dead."

"At least you're honest about your motives," Gabriel said after a moment. "I'm surprised, though."

"Oh?" Metatron sounded like he'd done his best to not sound curious, but it hadn't fully worked.

"That you're still bitter that we got to be around Dad longer than you did."

Metatron's face was stony. "I was His scribe!" He seethed.

"Yeah, sure, but who sent His messages?" Gabriel taunted, hooking his thumbs towards himself and ignoring the burn of the cuffs. "You weren't even around until after Earth was, and I stood by His side when he created this universe."

Metatron gestured tightly with one hand and the chains pressed into Gabriel's wings with a new intensity.

"_Ow - _motherfu-"

"You archangels," Metatron said tersely, "Were always so _arrogant. _You think you're special because you stood by His side for longer than I did?"

"Actually, in that case I think it's because of my stunning good looks - ow!"

"Do you have any idea how it felt?" Metatron demanded. "To be plucked from obscurity - _chosen - _to sit at God's feet and write down His word? To be ignored by you archangels all the time?"

"I imagine it made you a lot of enemies."

Metatron made a disgusted noise and sat back in his chair, obviously calming himself down. After a few moments had passed, he spoke again.

"None of that matters now, though."

"Doesn't it?" Gabriel glared up at Metatron. "Why? Because you think you've got me where you want me?"

"You're bound in holy fire, Gabriel, you're not going anywhere."

"Maybe not now." Gabriel spoke as menacingly as he could "But for a guy dad gave all that knowledge to - all of that, and you don't seem to understand me at all."

"I think I've got the measure of you better than you think." Metatron tossed the book into the fireplace with one quick movement, watching it burn with hooded eyes.

"Maybe you should have consulted some older works, Meta-douche. You don't seem to remember what I'm capable of. Sodom and Gomorrah ring a bell?"

"_I _don't need to do anything, Gabriel." He could detect the faintest trace of nervousness in Metatron's voice, which Gabriel took vindictive pleasure in. "You do."

"Excuse me?" Gabriel thought for a moment that maybe he'd misheard Metatron.

"You're going to help me."

"Like hell."

"Oh, I'm not asking, Gabriel."

"No."

"It would be a shame," Metatron mused, eyeing the circle of holy fire, "If that circle were too small to hold you."

If Gabriel hadn't seen it he wouldn't have believed it, but the circle started to _shrink,_ the flames licking at the carpet and creeping closer. His wings instinctually pressed closer to his back, already protesting the tight ropes of holy fire that prevented Gabriel from spreading them. "Who-ho-hoa, okay! Okay! Let's talk about this!"

Metatron smiled, and something inside Gabriel gagged a little bit. "I need to you talk to Castiel for me."

"That's it?" Gabriel had been expecting something on a larger scale.

"It has to be you - he won't listen otherwise. I wouldn't have bothered bringing you here just for that, but, well, authenticity matters."

"...Fine." Gabriel said shortly. "Mind explaining how I'm supposed to talk to him like this?" He raised his wrists meaningfully.

"Don't worry about that." Metatron was still smiling, and the creepiness level was almost as high as it had been for Mercury - maybe it was his vessel's teeth. "And it's a very simple thing. I need you to convince him to lead the angels against me."

Gabriel's eyebrows shot up. "You _want _him to fight you? That's going on the list of the craziest things you've said this whole time."

"Every hero needs a villain."

Gabriel stared for a moment and then started laughing. "You're seriously - ow!" The chains dug in again for a brief moment. "Enough already!"

"Well?" Metatron asked. "It's simple enough, even with your - I imagine - drastically reduced power."

"I said fine already. Now let me out so I can go track down Castiel."

"Not necessary."

Gabriel stared. "Uh, yeah, it's _kind of _necessary for me to find him before I can talk to him."

"Perhaps I haven't been clear enough." Metatron folded his hands, letting them rest on the desk. "As far as Castiel is going to be concerned, he'll think I've engineered the whole thing in his mind."

It took Gabriel a moment to understand. "You want me to just _think_ he's talking to me."

"Exactly." Metatron wiped some imaginary dust off his overly fancy desk. "I can't have him knowing you're really alive, of course. It would give him far too much hope. "

"You want me to rummage around in my brother's mind and mess with his perception?" Gabriel would have crossed his arms if that didn't mean burning even more of himself.

"An illusion or a dream would be perfectly serviceable." Metatron's face had creased into a frown, and the ring of holy fire ate into another inch or so of the carpet.

Gabriel's eyes flickered down to the fire, then back to Metatron.

"Fuck you."

"I assume that means you'll do it."

Gabriel glared at Metatron as fiercely as he could, but didn't verbally reply.

Metatron sat back, satisfied. "Turn around, then."

Gabriel frowned, and turned only in curiosity.

He nearly turned right back around to try and throttle Metatron.

"What the hell did you do to him?"

Castiel was sitting propped up on a leather sofa, tied and gagged, but that wasn't what Gabriel had meant - what he was staring at in horror was the wrong Grace burning away at Castiel, awkwardly and uncomfortably crammed into the shape of his true form, and how bad Castiel looked - his wings alone would have been enough to make a lesser angel panic outright.

"I haven't done anything to Castiel." Metatron didn't even bother to sound worried. "He's just been running himself a bit thin."

"Where the fuck is his Grace?"

"I wouldn't know," Metatron answered mildly, coming around the desk to stand just outside the holy fire. "And you have more important things to concentrate on right now."

With the eyes of an astonished Gabriel on him, Metatron blew out the holy fire like it was just a candle, and reached for Gabriel's forehead with two fingers. Gabriel leaned away.

"Don't be like that." Metatron grabbed him and pulled him closer and Gabriel's mind was flooded with memories of things he hadn't seen and a conversation he hadn't had.

"Everything you missed while playing dead," Metatron explained as Gabriel adjusted to the sudden mental influx.

"I could have done without that," Gabriel grumbled, letting his wings relax slightly and then wincing minutely when the binding made itself known again. "Not going to take these off, are you?"

"Castiel won't notice them unless you let him - which you won't." The tone of Metatron's voice made Gabriel want to punch him - he sounded so freaking smug, thinking he could just order Gabriel around. "And they're staying on, Gabriel, because we both know what you'd do to me if I took them off."

Gabriel didn't blame him for having a sense of self-preservation, but he did wish that Metatron's wasn't quite as sharp.

Sighing, he put a hand on Castiel's forehead and flipped Metatron off before diving into his brother's mind.

* * *

The first glance of Castiel made Gabriel ache with the urge to tell him the truth flat-out, but he swallowed it back. Gabriel's mind jumped to the last time they had seen each other - which, coincidentally enough, had also involved Gabriel being trapped in a ring of holy fire.

"I thought you were dead." Castiel dropped his bag as he stepped closer, disbelief clear in his face.

"Please," Gabriel said by way of answer. "You can't take the trick out of the Trickster."

Castiel glanced down, face hardening slightly. "So it was a trick - I assume you faked your death."

"And I assume you weren't let into Mensa while I was gone," Gabriel snorted, the joking cover coming easily after so much time using it.

"But where have you been?" Castiel asked.

_"Oh,_ you know..." Gabriel wandered around the 'hotel room' as he talked. "Hither, with a side of yon."

Castiel frowned at that, and Gabriel mentally sighed. Would it kill him to pick up on a bit of pop culture?

"I was in hiding, Captain Side-Eyes," He clarified. "In the _safest _place in the universe - Heaven!" He took a few steps forward, leaning on the back of a 'chair'. "But then _you _and the _other_ two stooges had to go and ruin Christmas, didn't you?"

Castiel no doubt held back whatever question he had about the reference, looking down at his feet. "Sorry," he muttered.

"Oh, cry me a river." Gabriel spun around, coming a full 360 to look back at Castiel once he'd taken a few steps. "Look. I dropped, I hid. I finally watched Downton Abbey!" He let himself fall backwards to sit on the 'sofa'. "But then Metatron sent his minions out looking for me. He thinks that since I'm an archangel-"

"That you'd have extra power," Castiel finished, understanding crossing his face.

"Yeah. But _I_ got hurt in the Fall too." Gabriel crossed his legs and resisted reaching back towards his wings, which were in a lot more pain than the Fall had ever caused. "Used most of what was left of my power to go underground. Point is, I've been on the run." A blatant lie, but what else was he supposed to say? "But then - _somebody _started playing my song."

"The angel siren." Castiel nodded in understanding.

Gabriel stared. Had his little brother really forgotten? Admittedly, he'd never seen it used like this, but still..."No. The Horn of Gabriel." Gabriel prayed that Castiel remembered enough to take his hint. "One of Dad's little party favors that I never got around to using. Metatron dug it up, and started blowing." He spread his hands, just keeping them close enough together that he didn't tug at the chains. "So...I came out of hiding."

"It wasn't Metatron." Castiel seemed eager to share what he knew. "It was his second-in-command, Gadreel."

"_Gadreel?" __He'd _gotten loose? That was one piece of information that Metatron hadn't included in his little info-dump. Gabriel stored it away to remember later and brought his attention back to the situation at hand. "It doesn't matter who's using it, Castiel, it matters _how. _The Horn's supposed to be used to unite angels...not kill them."

"So what do you want?" Castiel was open, completely prepared to do whatever Gabriel might ask, and it almost broke Gabriel's will to go through with the farce.

Instead, he stood up. "Your help," he said, seriousness replacing the airy demeanor he'd had on seconds before. "I'm getting the team back together. What do you say we take care of Metatron once and for all?"

* * *

The 'car' was a surprise.

Castiel's wings were useless now, obviously, but Gabriel honestly hadn't considered how Castiel was getting around. At least his vessel had known how to drive.

He glanced over and saw Castiel holding a 'phone' to his ear. "Dean - It's me. I'm heading your-"

"Whoa, whoa!" Gabriel snatched the 'phone' away. "Hands free much? Both on the wheel, I'm precious cargo."

Castiel might have rolled his eyes as he gripped the steering wheel again, and Gabriel was glad to see he'd at least had some influence on the mostly way-too-serious angel.

Gabriel grinned as he spoke into the phone. Even if this wasn't real, he could still have some fun with it. He wondered what Dean would think of the voicemail. "Heey, what's up, shorties? Remember me? The guy who died for your sins? No, not the one with the beard and sandals - the hot one. Anyhow, your boytoy and I are rolling towards your top-secret domicile - ooh. I didn't know you boys had a batcave. Call to discuss." He snapped the phone closed and put it back in Castiel's pocket.

"So," Castiel said after a moment. "You've been back for months. What have you seen?"

"After it was raining winged men, hallelujah?" Gabriel snorted. "Crowley and Abbadouche duking it out. _Our_ bros scattered like confetti. Nigh-biblical chaos. Good times," he finished sarcastically.

"It's been confusing," Castiel admitted.

"You think?" Gabriel rolled his eyes. "Most angels can't handle this whole free-will thing, Cas. They're used to being soldiers. Not like us."

"I'm nothing more than that."

"Bitch, _please." _Gabriel gave Castiel his best _seriously? _look, which didn't do much as Castiel was driving and therefore not looking back at Gabriel. "You've been God more often than Dad has."

"Yeah, and look how well that turned out." Even his vessel looked a bit worn and tired, in what little light shone in from passing streetlights.

"Well, fine." Gabriel threw his hands up slightly as he turned back to face the road as well. "Be a soldier all you want. I'm gonna need 'em."

"What for?" Castiel glanced over.

Gabriel didn't look at Castiel as he spoke. "I always run." He said eventually. "From Heaven. From Dad. I'm tired of it. I'm going to lead like I was meant to."

"Well, we need a leader." Gabriel could hear the relief in Castiel's voice and it tore into him. "I'm glad it's going to be you."

Gabriel kept staring out the window, spying a 'gas station' in the distance. Part of him wanted to just stay in the 'car' for a little longer and just talk to Cas - who he hadn't seen in over a decade, from his point of view - but the rational part told him that Metatron would probably roast both of them with holy fire if he thought Gabriel was taking to long.

"Little low on gas, aren't we?"

* * *

Gabriel grinned as he stepped into the 'convenience store'. "Oooh! Smell that cancer." He breathed in deeply. "Delicious." He really did miss regular junk food.

Castiel didn't even comment on it, stepping towards the back of the 'store' to glance over what they had. A 'truck' pulled up outside and Gabriel glanced over at it, changing his body language and pretending to stiffen in surprise.

"Uh...remember those minions of Metatron I mentioned?" Castiel just looked at him, puzzled, so Gabriel grabbed his face and physically turned Castiel around to see the 'people' climbing out of the 'truck'.

Gabriel locked the 'door' physically, since with the bindings he couldn't have locked it with his Grace if he tried, not with all the energy he was simultaneously expending on keeping the illusion up. He backed up, Castiel standing with an unsheathed angel blade on the other side of the 'shelf'.

"We'll never keep these guys out of here," Gabriel muttered.

"Then we fight," Said Castiel determination practically shining out of him.

"No, _I _fight." Gabriel retorted. "I lied earlier."

Castiel glanced over at him in a sort of horror.

"I never watched Downton Abbey." Gabriel flashed a grin at him. "And oh, yeah - I _do _have a little extra mojo. I can hold these morons off long enough."

"Long enough for what?"

"For you to get the hell out of here."

"No." By now they had both backed past the 'shelf', and Castiel resolutely faced Gabriel. "I'm not leaving."

"Cas-" Gabriel grabbed his shoulder. "Listen to me - the angels need a leader, and it's got to be someone like us. Someone who's not just another drone."

"I can't." Castiel had immediately understood what Gabriel meant. "No."

"I know you don't want this burden, Castiel, and neither do I." Gabriel started back at Castiel's intense x-ray gaze. "But it's got to be done by someone."

"What if I fail?" Castiel took a moment to answer and when he did his voice was much rougher.

"You won't." Gabriel grinned. "Promise."

Castiel took him by surprise by hugging him.

"Thank you," he whispered.

"Shut up." It came out much more affectionately than Gabriel had intended.

Castiel turned around and then stopped. Gabriel frowned, adopting a fake-defensive posture against the 'minions' who were arguing in front of the 'door'.

"Any day now, hot pants!"

"Was any of this real?" Castiel's voice was dark. He had turned back around.

"What are you talking about?" The glass of the 'door' broke with a crash and Gabriel braced himself, instinct ruling for one moment as he spread his wings slightly and whirled around to shove Castiel in the chest. His younger brother didn't move at all, and why would he? Gabriel's Grace was so restricted he doubted he could have shoved Dean Winchester over. "Cas, _go!"_

Castiel didn't move a muscle, staring impassively down at Gabriel.

"So, what?" Gabriel demanded angrily, letting himself get too involved in the role. "We both die here?"

"No." Castiel's voice was sad. "You're already dead."

His angel blade went right through Gabriel - he was, after all, an 'illusion', and you can't stab what isn't real.

"Well." Gabriel turned around and snapped, the 'minions' vanishing. He faced Castiel again, not letting any of his relief or confusion show. "What gave it all away?"

"My coat was torn earlier." Castiel showed the absolutely flawless interior layer of his coat.

"Aw, man." Gabriel hadn't done that, which meant it must have been Metatron's pathetic attempt to mimic his usual method. "I hate continuity errors."

"So." Castiel looked at him coldly. "None of this was real...and I'm guessing I'm no longer in the motel."

"Here's the thing." The words were almost physically painful as they left Gabriel's mouth. "None of it was real, but all of it was true."

"Whose truth?" Castiel challenged.

"Just give Metatron a chance, will you?" _No. Do not give him a chance. Kill the bastard first chance you get. _"He's trying to help."

"Really?" Gabriel had never seen one of his brothers challenge skepticism so well since the last time he tried to convince Balthazar that no, he did not want to get back together with Sigyn. "How?"

"Er..." Gabriel grinned. "Sorry. Didn't read the whole script. Just sort of...skimmed for my parts." He patted Castiel on the shoulder. "Good to see you again, bro."

"Wait." Gabriel paused in the act of snapping his fingers and saw Castiel looking at him almost desperately. "Are you dead?"

_No, no, I'm not. _Gabriel resisted the urge to tell the truth and raised his eyebrows, as if to say _What do you think?_ and snapped his fingers.

_Sorry, Cas._

* * *

Gabriel, jolting up from the sofa in the room Metatron had summoned him to, didn't give his brother a single opening to light up the holy fire again.

Metatron reeled backwards from the first punch, obviously surprised by the sudden onslaught. Gabriel leaped forward, out of the circle of oil on the floor [unlit, so it wasn't like he was trying to kill himself or anything] and punched Metatron in the face again, sending him backwards into his desk and knocking various items to the floor. Several of the _Supernatural _books tumbled off their perch, the bowl from earlier landed on its side and scattered herbs across the floor, and the typewriter hit the chair and then the floor with a rattling metallic thump and crash.

Gabriel didn't spare the time to wonder why Metatron suddenly looked so panicked when the answer immediately presented itself in the form of the holy fire chains going out with a glasslike shattering sound.

For a moment, they just stood there, Metatron backed up against the desk and Gabriel staring at his wrists in surprise.

Then Gabriel decided not to look at gift in the mouth or whatever the hell the saying was and snapped out one arm, throwing Metatron across the room. His Grace was wilder than usual, after being contained for even that short a period of time, and the wall cracked under the force with which Metatron hit it.

"Keeping an archangel under control, huh?" He asked tightly, advancing on Metatron and noticing Castiel still knocked out on the sofa. His still-wild Grace made the lights flicker and burst, casting strange, jumpy shadows over the room. "Seems like that's not going so well for you."

Metatron thrust his own arm out and Gabriel stumbled back, but without whatever ritual Metatron had used to overpower Gabriel he was in way, way over his head.

"You think you're _my _equal just because you've got some fancy new power source?" Gabriel scowled, pinning Metatron against the wall with the smallest thought. "Don't. Make. Me. Laugh."

"Go ahead," Metatron challenged, recovering his bravado. "There's nothing stopping you, Gabriel! Go ahead and prove that I was right about all of you!"

"Right about what?" Gabriel retorted. "You may call us arrogant, but what about you? Calling yourself Heaven's new ruler? Sounds pretty pretentious to me."

"I _deserve _the position." Metatron's face was twisted in a scowl as well. "After what you did? I was run out of my own home!"

"No one _made _you leave!"

"Well, what choice did I have?" Metatron snapped. "God was gone, how long would it have taken for me to be handed over to Naomi? For Michael and all of you to try and extract the secrets that He imparted to me? I _was _forced into exile, and no one will admit it!"

"You're preaching to the choir," Gabriel growled. "In case you forgot, you're not the only one who left Heaven, so suck it up and stop whining. Boo hoo, you had to spend a few millenia on Earth, get over it!"

"It's not _about _Earth, Gabriel."

"Oh, no, it's about Heaven and you being the best ruler you possibly can! Because forcibly kicking everyone out and stripping their wings from them is a much better deal, right?" Gabriel was practically looming over Metatron. "It's about _you, _little bro, and your need to prove that you're better than everyone else!"

Metatron glared fiercely, but it wasn't that intimidating. His hand moved slightly and Gabriel's eyes shot to something that looked vaguely like an angel-banishing sigil right before Metatron pressed it and he was tossed away from the room in a flash of Grace.

_Well, fuck._

* * *

"Damn. I let him distract me. I _knew _I shouldn't have let him keep talking." Gabriel shook his head, managing to keep himself from floating around randomly in whatever backwater corner of the universe he'd landed in after bouncing off the barrier the spell kept around Heaven - which had _sucked royally_. "He's one annoying bastard, though."

* * *

**I gave you guys a long chapter this time! I've been really getting these out, too. Homework isn't quite as heavy as it used to be - or maybe I'm just putting it off more.**

**Either way, I hope you appreciate this.**

**Read and review, please! It makes me happy to get feedback.  
**


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